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FROM  UPTON 
TO  THE  MEUSE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/fromuptontomeuseOOrainrich 


THE  RAVIN  MARION,  LOOKING  NORTH  ACROSS  THE  BATTLEFIELD  OF  THE 
REGIMENT'S  THREE  ATTACKS;  ITS  DEPTH  MAY  BE  NOTED  FROM  THE 
PATH  VAGUELY  SEEN  ALONG  ITS  BOTTOM. 


FROM   UPTON 
TO  THE  MEUSE 


I         WITH  THE 
THREE  HUNDRED  AND 
SEVENTH    INFANTRY 

A  BRIEF  HISTORY  OF  ITS  LIFE  AND  OF  THE  PART 
IT  PLAYED  IN  THE  GREAT  WAR 


BY 

W.  KERR  RAINSFORD 

CAPTAIN  THBEE  HUNDBED  AND  SEVENTH  INFANTBT 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

192Q 


■m? 


so1tW 


Copyright,  1920,  bt 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


miNTBD  IN  TH«  UNITED  STATES  OT  AMERICA 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OP  ITS  DEAD 

AND  AS  A  TRIBUTE  TO  ITS  LIVING. 

TO  THEHt  CHEERFUL  ENDURANCE 

UNDER  EXHAUSTING  PRIVATION, 

AND  TO  THEHt  COURAGE  IN  THE  FACE  OF  DANGER 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 


441009 


FOREWORD 

The  history  of  the  307th  Infantry  is  the  his- 
tory of  faithful  service  and  devotion  to  duty 
of  an  organization  which  formed  part  of  the 
77th  Division  during  the  Great  War.  The 
name  of  the  regiment  is  linked  forever  with  the 
names  of  Merval,  Revillon,  and  La  Petite 
Montagne  in  the  Oise-Aisne  Offensive;  it 
fought  in  the  center  of  the  Argonne  Forest, 
took  the  town  of  Grand  Pre  and  advanced 
triumphantly  to  the  Meuse  in  the  course  of 
the  final  operations  which  broke  the  enemy  op- 
position. The  example  set  by  this  organiza- 
tion is  such  as  to  inspire  patriotism  and  de- 
votion to  duty  whether  in  military  life  or  in 
civil  pursuits. 


Headquarters  77th  Division 
Hotel  Biltmore 
New  York  City 


ROBERT  ALEXANDER 

Major  General.  U.  S.  A. 
Commanding  77th  Division 


INTRODUCTION 

Histories  are  too  often  builded  upon  the  fal- 
lible memory  of  man,  wherein  the  records  of 
events  are  liable  to  be  tinted  with  that  exu- 
berance which  so  often  surrounds  the  fisher- 
man's catch.  In  order  that  the  splendid  serv- 
ice which  was  rendered  by  the  307th  Infantry, 
77th  Division  of  the  National  Army,  in  the 
great  World  War,  might  be  perpetuated  while 
the  events  were  still  fresh  in  memory,  while 
official  documents  and  pictures  were  available, 
and  reconnaissance  of  battlefields  could  be 
made,  this  work  was  started  in  January,  1919, 
when  the  regiment  was  still  in  France  and  be- 
fore the  work  could  be  influenced  by  that  too 
easy  divergence  from  facts  which  the  narrator 
so  soon  weaves  into  his  story  in  absolute  cre- 
dence. 

After  very  careful  consideration  of  the  nec- 
essary qualities  and  personality  for  a  historian 
whose  work  could  be  accepted  without  ques- 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 

tion,  I  selected  Capt.  W.  K.  Rainsford,  then 
commanding  Company  L,  307th  Infantry,  for 
the  task.  All  official  documents  in  the  307th 
Infantry  and  the  77th  Division  were  made 
available  to  him,  and  leave  was  granted  him 
for  a  reconnaissance  of  the  terrain  over  which 
the  regiment  had  fought. 

Captain  Rainsford  was  graduated  from 
Harvard  in  1904  and  from  the  ficole  des 
Beaux  Arts,  Paris,  in  1911.  During  1915-16 
he  served  with  the  American  Ambulance  sec- 
tion attached  to  the  French  Army,  and  in  this 
capacity  participated  with  the  French  during 
the  big  German  attack  on  Verdun  in  June, 
1916.  He  attended  the  first  Plattsburg  Offi- 
cers' Training  Camp  in  1917  and  was  commis- 
sioned a  captain  of  infantry  therefrom.  In 
September,  1917,  he  was  assigned  to  the  77th 
Division  and  placed  in  command  of  Company 
M,  307th  Infantry.  As  commander  of  this 
company  he  went  to  France  with  his  regiment 
and  after  training  with  the  British  Army  took 
part  in  the  defense  of  the  Baccarat  sector  and 
the  Oise-Aisne  offensive,  until  wounded  in 
front  of  Chateau  Diable  in  August,  1918. 


INTRODUCTION 

Returning  from  hospital  in  September  he 
was  placed  in  command  of  Company  L,  307th 
Infantry,  and  was  for  the  second  time  severely 
wounded  in  October,  while  leading  his  com- 
pany in  the  first  attempt  to  reach  Major 
Charles  W.  Whittlesey's  command,  composed 
of  parts  of  the  308th  and  307th  Infantry, 
which  had  been  cut  off  and  surrounded  by 
the  Germans  in  the  Argonne  Forest.  In  De- 
cember Captain  Rainsford  was  again  returned 
from  hospital  to  duty  with  his  regiment. 

This  work  is  therefore  commended  to  its 
readers  as  an  official  product  from  the  pen,  not 
of  an  onlooker  but  of  a  participant  who  en- 
dured every  privation  and  hardship  with  the 
regiment ;  one  who  had  watched  the  Great  War 
from  its  beginning  with  the  eye  of  a  profes- 
sional soldier,  and  who  had  served  therein  with 
the  greatest  valor  and  self-sacrifice  from  1915 
until  the  end. 

Little  can  I  express  the  great  admiration, 
respect  and  affection  I  feel  for  every  man  of 
this  splendid  regiment,  which  I  never  com- 
manded in  battle  but  watched  in  every  action, 
first  while  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  77th  Division 

3D 


INTRODUCTION 

of  the  National  Army  to  which  it  belonged, 
and  then  as  commander  of  its  companion  regi- 
ment in  the  154th  Infantry  Brigade,  the  308th 
Infantry,  during  the  last  month  of  intense 
fighting  in  the  Argonne. 

The  entire  Division  was  drawn  from  what 
the  military  critics  of  the  time  assumed  was 
the  poorest  fighting  material  in  the  United 
States,  that  greatest  of  all  melting  pots  of  hu- 
manity— New  York  City.  Men  unused  to  the 
sturdy  activity  of  outdoor  life;  men  who  had 
had  little  chance  for  that  physical  development 
which  enables  them  to  endure  great  privation, 
fatigue  and  suffering;  men  who  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  woodcraft  and  the  use  of  firearms,  and 
in  consequence  were  lacking  in  the  principles 
of  self-preservation  and  the  confidence  which 
comes  from  such  knowledge.  Yet  these  men, 
inducted  into  the  service  when  their  nation 
was  in  peril,  after  a  brief  period  of  training 
were  thrown  against  the  most  perfectly  trained 
and  disciplined  army  the  world  has  ever  known. 
They  fought  their  way  to  victory  and  never 
once  gave  ground  to  the  enemy.  Always  en- 
during with  perfect  cheerfulness  and  courage 

xii 


INTRODUCTION 

every  hardship  and  privation,  responding  at 
all  times  to  their  leaders,  they  accepted  with 
equal  tenacity  of  purpose  and  disregard  of  self 
the  necessity  for  a  frontal  attack  on  the  ene- 
my's machine-gun  nests  or  long  sleepless  nights 
and  days,  drenched  to  the  skin  and  foodless, 
shivering  with  the  cold,  with  no  protection 
from  the  elements  or  the  enemy's  terrible  weap- 
ons of  destruction.  A  complaint  was  never 
heard,  failure  to  obey  was  a  thing  unknown. 
Men  who  had  lived  in  the  glare  of  electric  lights 
and  had  never  known  darkness  foughttheirway 
night  and  day  through  fifteen  miles  of  the  most 
impenetrable  mass  of  dense  forest  and  under- 
brush, wire  entanglements  and  trenches,  that 
mind  can  conceive,  in  the  Foret  d'Argonne. 

No  division  suffered  greater  hardships,  had 
greater  losses  during  the  time  it  was  in  line, 
nor  was  better  disciplined  and  trained  than  this 
cosmopolitan  division  of  New  York  City — the 
77th,  New  York's  Own. 

If  our  nation  is  properly  to  protect  its  great 
wealth  and  future  trade  development,  and 
more  than  all  its  homes  and  the  lives  of  its  peo- 
ple, no  more  forceful  argument  for  the  univer- 

xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

sal  training  of  our  young  men  can  be  presented 
than  the  history  of  this  regiment  and  division. 
A  brief  period  of  intensive  training  made 
splendid  officers  from  raw  material,  and  nine 
months  of  similar  training  in  service  developed 
the  army  which  whipped  the  Hun. 

But  let  us  not  drift  into  the  fallacy  that  there 
will  always  be  buffer  states  between  us  and 
the  enemy  to  protect  us  while  this  training  is 
in  progress.  The  deeds  of  this  regiment  exem- 
plify what  our  splendid  manhood  can  and  will 
do  for  their  country;  what  splendid  patriotism 
comes  from  the  crucible  of  American  citizen- 
ship. Let  us  profit  by  past  experience  and  in 
times  of  peace  prepare  for  any  eventuality,  not 
by  attempting  to  create  a  huge  and  expensive 
regular  establishment  but  by  training  our 
young  men  in  the  use  of  arms,  with  that  health- 
ful, vigorous  training  which  makes  better  men 
of  them  morally  and  physically,  so  that  we  will 
at  all  times  be  ready  to  safeguard  our  country 
against  the  encroachments  and  avarice  of  an 
enemy.  When  arbitration  fails  and  we  must 
throw  down  the  gauntlet  for  the  preservation 
of  right,  let  us  not  send  them  forth  incom- 

xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

pletely  trained  and  equipped,  thus  inviting  an 
unnecessary  waste  of  life,  through  a  miscon- 
ceived economy  or  that  more  charitable  though 
equally  fallacious  belief  of  the  pacifist,  that 
wars  are  of  the  past.  Preparedness  is  war's 
antitoxin.  Had  we  been  prepared  in  1914 
the  Lamtania  would  never  have  been  sunk. 

J.  R.  R.  Hannay, 

Colonel  U.  S.  Armt 
(Fobmeblt  Commanding  307th  Infantry) 


XV 


PREFACE 

The  following  brief  history  was  written  for 
the  most  part  during  the  latter  months  of  the 
Regiment's  stay  in  France,  and  was  pieced 
together,  in  so  far  as  the  events  recorded  had 
not  come  under  the  writer's  direct  observation, 
from  a  number  of  sources.  Such  documents  as 
the  Regiment  still  held  in  its  possession  were 
carefully  studied,  but  these  were  very  insuffi- 
cient and  often  inconclusive.  They  consisted 
largely  of  orders,  which  might  afterward  have 
been  countermanded,  or  else  simply  never 
have  been  carried  out  as  contemplated.  They 
consisted  also  of  reports  which  had  been  called 
for  on  specific  subjects  or  actions;  but  these 
also  would  often  have  been  written  without 
adequate  time  for  their  preparation,  and  under 
stress  of  more  pressing  matters  by  officers 
greatly  overtaxed.  The  battalion  war  diaries 
in  General  Headquarters  at  Chaumont  were 
also  studied.  But  there  again  the  line  or  two 
devoted  to  the  day's  activity  of  a  battalion  was 
too  meager  a  contribution  to  be  greatly  help- 
ful; and  when  action  had  been  serious  and  con- 

xvii 


PREFACE 

tinuous  it  was  often  represented  simply  by  a 
gap  in  the  records. 

The  barest  skeleton  of  the  story  could  thus 
be  built  and  the  filling  in  of  it  was  found  to 
be  best  accomplished  by  continuously  inter- 
viewing those  who  had  taken  part  in  its  vari- 
ous phases.  In  this  connection  the  reader  may 
be  struck  by  a  slight  but  unintentional  over- 
emphasis of  the  battalion  to  which  the  writer 
belonged,  and  with  the  life-history  of  which  he 
was  more  intimately  familiar.  There  may  also 
be  an  under-emphasis  of  any  headquarters 
higher  than  that  of  battalion,  which,  rather 
than  regiment,  is  the  combat-unit  of  the  mod- 
ern army.  But  the  effort  has  been  consistent 
and  very  painstaking  for  truth  of  both  fact 
and  color;  and  the  story  herewith  presented 
is  primarily  a  true  story.  On  that  point  the 
writer  wishes  to  be  emphatic. 

The  reader  will  find  herein  little  of  the  color- 
ful melodrama  with  which  the  public's  taste 
has  so  largely  been  vitiated  in  the  stories  of 
war.  As  a  case  in  point  he  will  find  no  men- 
tion of  bayonet-fighting.  It  is  difficult  to  turn 
to  a  single  magazine-illustration  of  fighting  in 
the  Argonne  Forest  wherein  at  least  one  of  the 
American  soldiers  is  not  seen  driving  his  bay- 
onet through  the  body  of  a  German  machine- 
gunner,  while  the  latter  raises  inadequately 
xviii 


PREFACE 

protesting  hands  to  the  sky — and  quite  prob- 
ably every  American  in  the  picture  will  be  so 
engaged.  Yet,  at  the  risk  of  deeply  shocking 
his  public,  the  writer  gives  it  as  his  careful 
opinion  that  probably  no  German  machine- 
gun  crew  was  ever  bayoneted  by  Americans  in 
the  Forest  of  Argonne.  Although  his  regi- 
ment, perhaps  more  than  any  other,  bore  the 
bitter  brunt  of  fighting  down  the  whole  bloody 
length  of  that  forest,  he  yet  thinks  it  im- 
probable that  any  soldier  of  the  regiment, 
either  there  or  elsewhere,  ever  used  his  bayonet 
at  all.  It  may  have  occurred,  but  if  so  it  was 
a  rarity.  Nor  does  this  imply  any  slightest 
lack  on  the  part  of  the  troops  engaged — cer- 
tainly not  any  lack  of  intelligence.  The 
bayonet  became  obsolete  with  the  passing  of 
trench  warfare.  Place  a  group  of  men,  armed 
with  machine-guns,  magazine-rifles,  and  auto- 
matic pistols,  free-footed  in  the  woods,  and  try 
hurdling  the  barbed-wire  toward  them  with  a 
spear  in  your  hand.  You  will  infallibly  be 
mourned  by  your  relatives — if  they  loved  you 
— and  the  machine-gun  will  still  be  in  action. 
In  innumerable  conversations  with  officers 
from  almost  all  the  American  combat-divisions 
whom  he  met  in  hospitals,  the  writer  has  never 
heard  an  authentic  and  first-hand  account  of 
bayonet-fighting.     It  is  altogether  unworthy 

xix 


PREFACE 

of  true  courage  and  self-sacrifice  that  the  story 
of  it  should  be  falsified  to  suit  a  supposedly 
popular  taste. 

The  story  herewith  presented  is  then  pri- 
marily true.  In  so  far  as  it  deals  with  the 
307th  Infantry  alone  it  is  known  to  be  true; 
and  in  so  far  as  it  touches  upon  other  organiza- 
tions it  is  believed  to  be  so — but  not  as  the 
result  of  any  special  investigation.  Since 
writing  the  chapter  on  the  crossing  of  the  Aire, 
for  example,  the  writer  has  learned  of  some 
dispute  between  the  153rd  Brigade  and  the 
82nd  Division  as  to  the  taking  of  St.  Juvin. 
On  this,  or  on  similar  subjects  not  directly 
germane  to  his  narrative,  he  has  made  no 
great  effort  to  investigate,  and  has  not  thought 
it  worth  while  to  qualify  his  reference  to  the 
taking  of  St.  Juvin  by  the  153rd  Brigade.  The 
references  made  to  other  organizations  are 
merely  intended  to  give  the  story  of  the  307th 
its  proper  setting,  and  to  suggest  the  relation 
of  its  movements  to  the  scheme  of  larger 
events,  rather  than  to  define  the  movements  of 
those  organizations. 

The  sketches  and  photographs  used  to  illus- 
trate the  text  were  made  by  the  author, — the 
first  when,  as  an  ambulance  driver  with  the 
French  in  1916,  he  traversed  in  part  the  same 
region,  and  the  latter  when  he  revisited  the 

xx 


PREFACE 

battle-fields  of  the  Vesle  and  Aisne  in  March, 
1919 — six  months  after  they  had  been  fought 
over.  He  greatly  regrets  that  the  subjects 
presented  should  not  be  of  more  obvious  and 
general  interest,  and  he  made  every  effort, 
though  unsuccessfully,  to  secure  some  that 
were. 

Yet  to  himself  the  photographs  are  of  deep 
interest,  as  were  those  few  days  of  March  on 
which  they  were  taken.  The  return,  as  of  a 
spirit  escaped  from  purgatory,  to  that  drear 
half-forgotten  country — the  battered  villages, 
with  their  pitiable  inhabitants  creeping  back  to 
ruined  homes ;  the  broken  woodlands  with  their 
trampled  wreckage  of  equipment,  still  un- 
gathered,  rotting  slowly  into  the  ground;  the 
flooded  marshes,  where  the  river,  choked  with 
debris,  backed  and  spread  into  stagnant  pools ; 
the  bleak,  scarred  uplands,  seen  through  a  mist 
of  rain  and  driving  snow,  where  black  flocks  of 
rooks  winged  back  and  forth,  or  perched  in 
hordes  along  the  tangled  wire;  and  from  the 
hills,  where  the  French  engineers  were  setting 
off  unexploded  shells,  the  same  heavy  orchestra 
as  of  yore.  It  is  a  land  accursed  whose  re- 
generation will  be  long  in  coming. 

The  two  poems  have  both  previously  ap- 
peared in  the  Outlook.  The  first  was  written 
on  February  21st,  1918,  while  spending  a  night 

xxi 


PREFACE 

alone  as  Officer  of  the  Day  in  the  71st  Regi- 
ment Armory  in  New  York,  where  the  307th 
Infantry  had  left  its  arms  under  guard  for  the 
parade  of  Washington's  Birthday.  The  offi- 
cers of  the  Regiment  had  recently  adopted  for 
it  the  old  Gaelic  motto  of  the  Irish  Inniskillen 
Dragoons,  "Faugh-a-Ballagh"  ("Clear  the 
Way"),  and  had  agreed  to  carry  blackthorn 
sticks  as  a  regimental  emblem.  It  was  said 
that  the  Regiment  would  be  known  as  the 
Blackthorn  Regiment,  although  actually  the 
name  never  clung  very  close.  These  verses 
were  afterward  read  to  Congress  by  the  mem- 
ber from  Michigan,  and  reprinted  in  the  Con- 
gressional Record.  The  second  was  written  in 
hospital,  late  during  the  fateful  month  of 
October,  1918,  when  it  was  becoming  evident 
to  those  behind  the  lines  that  the  final  act  of 
the  great  drama  was  about  to  be  played. 

Finally  the  writer  thinks  it  well  to  say  that, 
though  largely  written  in  France,  this  book 
was  at  the  time  of  the  mustering  out  of  the 
Regiment  on  May  9,  1919,  still  in  very  frag- 
mentary form,  so  that  it  was  not  read  by  any 
superior  officer.  Should  there  appear  in  its 
pages  any  passages  seeming  by  implication  to 
be  critical,  such  criticism  is  that  solely  of  the 
writer  and  of  the  brother  officers  with  whom 
he  has  conferred,  and  does  not  in  any  way  bear 

xxii 


PREFACE 

the  indorsement  of  the  greatly  respected  colo- 
nel or  the  general  who  have  so  generously  pref- 
aced it,  but  who  have  never  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  see  its  contents.  Criticism  is  far  from 
the  purpose  of  this  present  volume,  but  in  deal- 
ing very  frankly  with  the  facts,  as  seen  on  the 
Line,  it  may  occasionally  seem  to  be  implied. 

The  writer  was  informed  by  the  Regimental 
Adjutant,  shortly  before  demobilization,  that 
he  had  received  notice  of  the  Regiment  being 
chosen  from  among  the  others  of  the  Division 
for  perpetuation  in  the  Army  of  the  United 
States.  This,  to  become  fact,  would  be  con- 
ditional upon  the  proposed  enlargement  of  the 
Regular  Army  to  five  hundred  thousand,  un- 
der which  circumstances  one  regiment  is  to  be 
selected  from  each  of  various  divisions  for 
perpetuation.  The  77th  Division,  already  dis- 
tinguished as  the  first  division  of  the  Draft  to 
be  sent  overseas,  has  been  officially  credited,  in 
the  report  of  Gen.  Peyton  C.  March,  Chief  of 
Staff,  with  the  greatest  aggregate  depth  of 
territory  gained  from  the  enemy  of  any  Ameri- 
can Division  in  France — 77.5  kilometers,  or 
9.14  per  cent,  of  the  entire  advance  of  the 
American  forces — there  being  twenty-seven 
divisions  listed  in  all,  and  the  2nd  Division 
coming  next  with  60  kilometers. 

The  307th  Infantry  has  been  selected  per- 
xxiii 


PREFACE 

manently  to  represent  the  Division,  than  which 
no  greater  recognition  of  its  service  could  well 
be  accorded  it.  This,  then,  is  the  story  of  the 
Regiment,  the  purpose  of  which  is  truthfully 
to  portray  some  aspects  of  an  epoch  very  mem- 
orable in  the  life  of  the  nation. 

W.  X.  Rainsfobd 
Captain  807th  Infantry 


xxiv 


FAUGH-A-BALLAGH 

There's  a  Blackthorn  Regiment  belongs  to  Uncle  Sam, 
And  it's  heading  out  for  trouble  any  day. 

Be  it   France,  or  Greece,  or   Italy,  it  doesn't  give  a 
damn, 
Only  start  it  on  its  road  and  Clear  the  Way! 

Clear  the  Way  before  us  when  our  marching  orders 
come! 

Can't  you  hear  the  fifes  a-screaming  and  the  throb- 
bing of  the  drum, 

And  the  roar  of  marching  feet 

Down  the  crowded  city  street, 

Past  the  avenues  of  faces?  It's  the  long  good-bye  for 
some. 

It's  the  price  we  gladly  pay 

To  the  Resurrection  Day. 

Let  us  pay  it  as  we  play  it — Faugh-a-Ballagh !  Clear 
the  Way! 


We've  a  debt  that's  due  to  England.    We've  a  price  to 

pay  for  France. 

We've  a  score  with  God  Almighty  we  would  pay. 

We  have  talked  and  we  have  dallied  while  the  others 

staked   our   chance. 

It  is  time  we  drew  our  cards — so  Clear  the  Way! 

XXV 


FAUGH-A-BALLAGH 

There's  a  length  of  battered  trenches  where  the  trees 
are  torn  and  dead, 
With  the  reek  of  rotting  horses  in  the  air; 
Where  through   blinding   fog  the  shells  come   wailing 
blind  overhead, 
And  it's  waiting  for  us  now — over  there.  j 

Where  the  yellow  mud  is  splattered  from  the  craters 
in  the  snow, 
Where  the  dice  of  death  are  loaded — let  us  play. 
We  have  pledged  our  word  to  Freedom, — and  it's  there 
that  we  would  go, 
In  the  strength  that  Freedom  gives  us — Clear  the 
Way! 

Clear  the  way  to  No  Man's  Land,  with  bugles  shrill 

and  high; 
Clear  it  to  the  lid  of  Hell,  with  flags  against  the  sky. 
Oh,  clear  the  way  to  Kingdom  Come,  and  give  us  glad 

good-bye. 
We've  a  blow  to  strike  for  Freedom — Clear  the  Way! 

W.  K.  R. 

21bt  February, 1018 
Abiiobt  71bt  N.G.N.Y. 


xxvi 


CONTENTS 


MM 

Preface   .     .     .     . " •'....  vii 

Foreword  bt  General  Alexander ix 

Introduction  by  Colonel  Hannat xvii 

Poem         xrv 

CHAPTER 

I.    Camp  Upton 1 

II.    With  the  British S3 

III.  Lorraine 41 

IV.  The  Chateau  du  Diable 66 

V.    Across  the  Veslb 07 

VI.    Merval 118 

VII.    Sheets  and  Bandages 135 

VIII.    The  Forest  op  Argonne    < 153 

IX.    The  Dep6t  de  Machines 174 

X.    The  Surrounded  Battalion 195 

XI.    Grand  Pr£ 225 

XII.    The  Adavnce  to  the  Meuse      .......  242 

XIII.    The  Home  Trail 272 

Poem 282 

Appendix 285 


XXV11 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PAGE 

The  Ravin  Marion,  looking  North  from  its  Eastern  Horn 

Frontispiece 

The  entrance  blocked  by  the  fallen  chimes 44 

Baccarat — the  wake  of  early  invasion 64 

Baccarat — a  Pompeian  effect  of  statues  amid  the  ruins  .  .  64 
The  Chateau  du  Diable :  (to  be  seen  above  the  "  C  "  in  "  Chau  ")  82 
Concrete  Signal-House  on  the  Railroad  transformed  into  a 

German  Pill-Box,  seen  from  its  rear 04 

The  Chateau  du  Diable,  looking  across  a  side  branch  of  the 

Vesle 04 

Side  Street  in  Lismes — water  backing  up  from  the  choked  river 

into  the  town 104 

The  River  Front  at  Fismes,  looking  across  the  Vesle  from 

Fismette 104 

Church  at  Merval  overlooking  the  enemy  lines  to  the  North  and 

used  as  American  observation  post 112 

Battalion  Headquarters  at  Merval — a  forty  foot  cave  in  the 

chalk 112 

The  Sunken  Road — Merval,  showing  a  litter  of  American  equip- 
ment at  the  roadside — the  debris  of  three  attacks  .     .     .     134 

Milestones  on  the  Road  to  Victory 154 

On  the  edge  of  that  desert  region  about  Verdun 164 

Sun-scorched  and  dust-covered  debris 226 

Old  battlefields  and  ruins 272 


XXIX 


With  the 

THREE  HUNDRED  AND 

SEVENTH  INFANTRY 


CHAPTER  I 

CAMP  UPTON 

The  307th  Infantry,  154th  Brigade,  77th 
Division,  National  Army,  came  into  confused 
being  at  Camp  Upton,  Long  Island,  with  the 
first  increment  of  the  draft  from  New  York, 
in  September,  1917.  Its  officers  were  of  a  high 
average  of  intelligence  and  natural  ability,  but 
their  experience  in  war  was  for  the  most  part 
limited  to  that  gained  at  Plattsburg  from  the 
I.D.R.,  the  F.S.R.,  and  the  imperishable  Ser- 
geant Hill;  its  enlisted  personnel,  for  it  was 
ordered  that  the  drafted  men  should  be  so  des- 
ignated, was  very  largely  from  the  East  Side 
of  the  city,  and  contained  every  nationality 
that  America  has  welcomed  to  her  shores,  but 
almost  none  who,  on  any  pretext,  had  handled 
a  rifle;  its  camp  site  was  a  recently  cleared 
area  of  dust  or  mud,  according  to  the  weather, 

1 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

gridironed  by  dirt  roads,  occupied  in  part  by 
I wo- story  wooden  shacks  but  more  largely  by 
piles  of  lumber,  and  surrounded  by,  first,  a 
zone  of  uprooted  pine-stumps,  then  a  space  of 
charred  pine-stumps  in  place,  and  finally  by 
an  endless  sea  of  scrub-pine  and  autumn- 
tinted  oak  stretching  down  to  the  distant 
Sound.  On  Headquarters  Hill  alone  a  scat- 
tering growth  of  pines,  which  had  escaped  the 
ax,  lent  a  remote  suggestion  of  natural  beauty 
to  the  scene.  In  dry  weather  walls  of  dust 
swept  from  end  to  end  of  the  encampment, 
and  in  wet  weather  lakes  inconveniently  ap- 
peared. But  the  work  of  construction  con- 
tinued simultaneously  with  that  of  mobiliza- 
tion, and  both  achieved  final,  if  imperfect,  com- 
pletion. 

The  Colonel  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  were 
of  the  regular  army  at  lower  rank,  a  very  few 
of  the  lieutenants  had  held  non-commissioned 
rank  in  the  regular  service,  and  to  each  com- 
pany was  sent  from  the  regular  army  one  or 
two  men  as  sergeants.  Of  these  last  a  few  did 
excellent  service  as  drill  sergeants;  but  on  the 
whole  the  experiment  was  not  successful,  and 

2 


CAMP  UPTON 

the  greater  number  were  returned  to  the  regi- 
ments whence  they  came. 

The  company  officers  had  expected  to  en- 
counter difficulties  in  their  appointed  tasks,  and 
they  did  so,  but  not  as  they  had  anticipated. 
The  draft  arrived  in  groups  of  from  thirty 
to  sixty  or  more,  usually  following  behind  a 
box-standard  bearing  the  number  of  the  Local 
Board,  and  in  charge  of  a  temporary  leader, 
who  submitted  a  list  of  their  names  and  an 
armful  of  their  appropriate  papers.  While 
the  receiving  officer,  on  the  steps  of  his  bar- 
racks, was  ascertaining  the  innumerable  dis- 
crepancies between  the  two,  the  draft  stood 
about  eyeing  him  with  expectant  curiosity,  with 
friendly  amusement,  with  critical  displeasure, 
or  with  apathy,  according  to  their  nationality 
or  mood — with  any  and  every  emotion  save 
military  respect.  Then  came  the  calling  of  the 
roll  and  further  discrepancies.  Certain  men 
would  answer  with  alacrity  to  each  of  three 
names  called,  or  stand  silent  while  their  own 
was  called  as  many  times.  As  a  typical  in- 
stance, a  man  in  "M"  Company  had  answered 
"Here"  at  every  formation  for  nearly  a  week 

3 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

before  he  was  discovered  to  have  been  left  at 
home  on  account  of  illness,  and  never  to  have 
reported  at  the  camp.  Another  ghost  was  laid 
by  the  following  dialogue: 

"Morra,  T." 

"Here." 

"Morra,  R." 

(From  the  same  individual)  "Here." 

"Does  your  first  name  begin  with  a  T.  or 
an  R.?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Is  your  first  name  Rocco?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"What  is  your  first  name?" 

"Tony." 

And  all  in  perfectly  good  faith. 

They  were  at  this  stage  known  as  "casuals," 
and  after  feeding  them,  one  of  the  earliest 
duties  was  to  interview  each  personally  and 
ascertain  his  civilian  occupation,  probable  ca- 
pacity in  it,  and  preference  as  to  branch  of 
service,  although  his  statement  as  to  the  latter 
seemed  but  seldom  to  affect  his  ultimate  fate. 

Then  came  the  fitting  of  uniforms.  One 
set  of  all  possible  sizes  was  available  for  try- 

4 


CAMP  UPTON 

ing  on  to  each  battalion,  though  not  often  to 
any  of  its  companies ;  the  consolidated  requisi- 
tions were  made  out  and  submitted,  and  were 
filled,  of  necessity,  piecemeal  in  the  course  of 
days  or  weeks;  by  which  time  the  casuals  had 
largely  been  sent  to  other  organizations,  and 
others,  coming  as  casuals  from  elsewhere,  had 
taken  their  place.  These  brought  with  them 
memoranda  of  their  required  sizes,  or  had  lost 
them,  as  the  case  might  be.  It  was  the  usual 
experience  that  the  sizes  noted  were  not  the 
sizes  required,  that  the  sizes  received  were  very 
possibly  not  the  sizes  requisitioned,  and  that 
the  articles  had  probably  been  marked  with 
the  wrong  sizes  in  the  first  instance.  The  men 
took  the  fit  of  their  uniform  seriously,  as  a 
soldier  should,  and  a  company  commander's 
time  was  about  equally  distributed  between 
those  whose  breeches  offended  their  better 
judgment,  those  whose  broken  arches  prevent- 
ed their  marching,  those  who  (through  inter- 
preters) were  unnaturalized  Russians  and  did 
not  belong  in  the  draft  at  all,  and,  commonest 
ailment,  those  whose  perishing  family  required 
their  immediate  presence  at  home. 

5 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

The  evil,  probably  unavoidable  in  any  army, 
of  detailing  officers  away  from  their  com- 
panies to  special  duty,  had  already  made  itself 
felt,  and  at  this  time  a  very  typical  company 
of  the  regiment  had  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  recruits  to  feed,  clothe,  discipline,  control, 
and  train,  a  six-inch  litter  of  papers  on  the 
table  of  the  otherwise  unfurnished  orderly- 
room,  each  calling  for  immediate  compliance 
or  report,  and  three  officers  present  for  duty. 
General  Sherman  only  half  expressed  himself. 

The  organization  of  the  rifle  companies  was 
made  difficult  by  the  very  constant  transfer  of 
men  to  specialist  groups,  to  other  branches  of 
the  service,  or  to  other  training  camps.  If  a 
recruit  was  quick  and  intelligent  he  was  prob- 
ably found  to  be  also  an  electrician,  and  was 
transferred  to  the  signal  platoon,  or  a  chauf- 
feur, and  went  to  the  motor  transport,  or  else 
he  looked  promising  as  a  machine-gunner,  ac- 
countant, or  one-pound  cannoneer,  and  also 
disappeared.  Camp  Gordon,  strangely  in 
need  of  men,  offered  a  certain  safety-valve, 
and  the  man  whose  face  seemed  irreconcilable 
with  a  steel  helmet,  whose  name  on  the  roll- 

6 


CAMP  UPTON 

call  consisted  only  of  consonants,  or  who  had 
cast  his  rice  pudding  in  the  mess-sergeant's 
face  often  completed  his  training  there — on 
the  pretext  that  all  is  fair  in  war. 

The  training  of  the  companies  was  made 
difficult  by  the  lateness  of  the  season  and  the 
lack  of  any  adequate  drill-ground  or  gymna- 
sium. As  the  mud  became  more  universal  and 
deeper  the  few  macadamized  roads,  notably 
Fifth  Avenue,  became  attractive  for  the  drill- 
ing of  squads  and  for  close  order  march;  but 
the  consequent  interference  with  traffic  led  to 
this  being  strictly  prohibited.  Troops  were 
forbidden  to  move  at  any  time  in  greater 
frontage  than  column  of  twos  upon  the  hard 
roads,  or  to  cross  them  except  by  infiltration; 
this,  with  the  unauthorized  taking  of  loose 
building-material — defined  to  include  any 
piece  of  lumber  greater  than  two  inches  square 
or  two  feet  in  length — for  the  purpose  of  in- 
terior improvements  or  firewood,  formed  a 
constant  Sword  of  Damocles  over  the  head  of 
any  company  commander  whose  three  hundred 
and  eighty  recruits  were  at  any  time  out  of 
his  sight. 

7 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Another  increment  of  the  draft  was  received 
in  December  and  again  in  February,  each  fol- 
lowed by  its  period  of  wholesale  transfers;  so 
that,  even  as  late  as  the  latter  month,  a  strang- 
er in  civilian  clothes  who  appeared  unan- 
nounced in  the  orderly-room,  with  his  hat  on 
his  head,  to  offer  the  company  commander  a 
red  apple,  might  still  be  a  member  of  his  com- 
mand. But  by  this  time  the  good  material 
was  coming  to  the  fore.  Corporals  and  ser- 
geants had  been  found  who  could  take  hold  of 
their  men,  drill  them,  and  enforce  regulations; 
and  there  never  was  any  apparent  unwilling- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  enlisted  men  to  serve, 
nor  conscious  wish  to  defy  authority. 

It  was  wonderful  how  willingly  they  seemed 
to  prepare  for  a  war  of  which  so  many  could 
not  know  the  meaning.  Three  thousand  miles 
across  the  sea,  what  could  it  mean  to  the 
late  worker  in  the  East-side  sweat-shop  that 
Messine  Ridge  was  retaken  by  the  Germans? 
And  yet  they  were  ready  to  prepare  to  take 
their  place  upon  that  distant  line.  There  were 
a  few  conscientious  objectors,  of  whom  at  least 
some  were  evidently  sincere,  letter-perfect  in 

8 


CAMP  UPTON 

their  Bible  texts  and  unwilling  to  shed  the 
blood  of  others;  there  were  a  very  few  who, 
with  or  without  the  sanction  of  Biblical  prece- 
dent, were  frankly  unwilling  to  shed  their 
own ;  there  were  also  some  of  German  parent- 
age who  were  excusably  unwilling  to  face  their 
relatives  with  a  rifle.  These  were  the  rare 
exceptions,  yet  in  passing  let  the  methods  be 
noted  by  which  it  was  directed  that  they  should 
be  dealt  with — for  these  methods  were  the 
same  as  those  which  saved  the  lives  of  numbers 
of  enemy  agents  in  the  land,  at  the  cost  of  the 
lives  of  innumerable  citizens.  A  conscientious 
objector  of  another  regiment  had  definitely 
and  finally  refused  to  put  on  his  uniform  when 
so  ordered  by  his  company,  battalion,  and 
regimental  commanders,  with  the  somewhat 
startling  result  that  officers  were  notified  that 
"they  would  be  held  responsible  not  to  place 
themselves  in  the  position  of  issuing  a  direct 
order  to  their  men."  With  other  types  of 
men  the  position  might  well  have  become  im- 
possible; but  it  was  not  so.  And  oh,  the  pathos 
of  those  poor  Italians,  and  Slavs,  and  Jews — 
Americans  all — who  came  to  their  company 

9 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

commanders  with  the  letters  from  their  sick 
wives,  uncared  for,  and  often  about  to  be 
ejected  from  their  pitiful  homes,  letters  un- 
complaining and  only  asking  when  the  hus- 
band could  return  for  a  little  while;  and  the 
men,  on  their  part,  only  asking  what  provi- 
sion could  be  made  for  their  women-folk  while 
they  were  away,  seldom  asking  for  the  ex- 
emption which  they  should  have  had  by  right, 
but  of  which  they  had  been  defrauded  by  some 
Local  Board,  more  concerned  over  the  safety 
of  its  native  sons  than  over  the  rights  of  its 
foreign-born  residents.  They  were  lovable 
men,  probably  because  nearly  all  men  become 
lovable  when  the  relations  between  them  are 
right,  and  are  long  continued. 

The  nearness  of  New  York,  however,  while 
a  convenience  to  the  individual,  was  a  de- 
cidedly adverse  factor  to  discipline  and  con- 
trol; and  the  men,  except  those  from  up-State, 
never  quite  cut  loose  from  the  city  nor  gave 
themselves  unreservedly  to  the  military  life. 
The  difficulty  of  A.W.O.L.  (absence  with- 
out leave)  was  pronounced  throughout  the  en- 
tire  period   at   Camp    Upton,    and   that    of 

10 


CAMP  UPTON 

drunkenness,  while  not  acute,  was  always  to 
be  reckoned  with. 

There  was  very  little  training  with  special 
arms  at  this  time.  The  rifle  range  was  used 
as  often  as  the  weather  permitted,  and,  though 
this  was  not  begun  until  winter  had  set  in, 
the  men  showed  decided  aptitude  for  the  work. 
Bayonet  drill  was  frequent,  although  compli- 
cated by  two  or  three  different  schools  of  tech- 
nique, to  which  selected  lieutenants  or  N.  C. 
O.'s  (non-commissioned  officers)  were  sent  for 
instruction,  and  which  usually  concluded  their 
course  with  a  warning  that,  in  view  of  a  more 
recent  method  having  been  ordered  since  the 
opening  of  the  course,  the  methods  of  instruc- 
tion just  taught  should  not  be  practiced  with 
the  troops.  The  throwing  of  dummy  grenades 
was  practiced  as  taught  by  a  French  lieuten- 
ant, but  live  hand-grenades  or  rifle-grenades 
were  never  available.  The  instruction  with 
automatic  rifles  did  not  go  beyond  that 
of  the  mechanism  of  the  Lewis  Gun  and  chau- 
chat  for  two  N.  C.  O.'s  and  a  lieutenant  from 
each  company,  with  a  single  day's  firing  on  the 
range.    The  guns  were  never  available  for  the 

11 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

training  of  squads  in  the  companies.  The  open- 
order  formations  of  the  English  and  French, 
as  gleaned  from  pamphlets,  were  grafted  onto 
the  American  regulations  more  or  less  accord- 
ing to  the  theory  or  understanding  of  the  in- 
dividual company  commander,  and  the  troops 
were  drilled  in  them  in  the  snowy  stump-fields. 
The  late  increments  of  recruits,  while  dis- 
tracting and  disorganizing,  had  at  least  the  ad- 
vantage of  giving  the  older  men  a  pride  in 
their  seniority  and  more  confidence  in  their 
authority.  The  number  of  officers  had  been 
increased,  both  from  the  later  Plattsburg 
camp  and  from  Camp  Mills,  to  an  average  of 
nearly  ten  per  company ;  amusement  halls  had 
been  constructed;  little  pine  and  cedar  trees 
had  been  planted  about  a  number  of  the  bar- 
racks; the  train  journey  to  and  from  the  city 
had  been  reduced  from  six  or  eight  hours  to 
an  average  of  two — and  the  cars  were  occa- 
sionally heated — and  by  midwinter  life  was 
moving  upon  ordered  ways.  It  was  a  rather 
severe  winter,  but,  except  for  the  lack  of  facil- 
ities for  indoor  exercise  and  training,  brought 
no  real  hardships ;  the  barracks  were  fairly  well 

12 


CAMP  UPTON 

heated,  for,  in  spite  of  the  coal  famine  in  the 
civilian  world,  coal  was  never  lacking  at  camp, 
and,  in  the  light  of  after  experience,  the  quan- 
tity and  quality  of  the  food-ration  was  extraor- 
dinary. 

One  special  feature  of  the  training  provoked 
a  real,  if  transitory,  thrill;  this  was  the  gas- 
chamber.  The  men  had  been  told  about  gas, 
about  the  gas  that  burned  out  your  lungs,  the 
gas  that  blistered  off  your  skin,  the  gas  that 
blinded  your  eyes,  that  made  you  vomit,  and 
that  made  you  sneeze ;  they  had  been  told  what 
to  do  about  each;  they  had  been  warned  and 
lectured  to  by  English  and  French  experts 
with  experience,  and  by  American  experts 
without  it ;  they  had  been  practiced  to  a  seven- 
second  adjustment  of  gas-masks;  they  had 
been  marched  in  gas-masks,  and  had  played 
games  in  them.  And  then  on  the  outer  con- 
fines of  camp  appeared  the  gas-chamber ;  and, 
after  a  final  inspection  of  masks  for  pin-pricks, 
and  after  a  sort  of  final  benediction,  one  pla- 
toon at  a  time — while  the  others  sat  upon  the 
neighboring  slopes  singing  a  funeral  march — 
one  platoon  at  a  time,  they  filed  into,  and  were 

13 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

sealed  within,  the  gas-ehamber.  There  was  no 
slightest  actual  danger,  and  yet  it  was  inter- 
esting. Even  so  early  came  a  slight  forewarn- 
ing of  that  coming  readjustment  of  values, 
when  the  too-often  drunken  ne'er-do-well  and 
the  recognized  public  nuisance  should  come  to 
their  own.  Even  so  early  one  glimpsed  ahead 
to  the  man  who  would  push  forward  laughing 
into  the  unknown;  or  to  him  who,  when  his 
company  drew  back  from  its  latest  Golgotha, 
might  be  found  with  a  scarlet  brassard  about 
his  arm,  doing  police-duty  at  a  cross-road,  and 
uneager  to  tell  how  he  got  there. 

To  one  who  spent  Christmas  at  the  Camp — 
and  by  far  the  greater  number  were  able  to 
go  home — that  day  forms  one  of  its  pleasant- 
est  memories.  There  were  a  scattered  few, 
disconsolate  in  the  empty  barracks,  wishing 
they  too  were  at  home,  or  looking  apathetic- 
ally out  on  the  fine  rain  that  gathered  in  icicles 
along  the  eaves.  And  then  volunteers  were 
called  for  to  bring  in  pine  branches  and  trail- 
ing vines  to  decorate  the  mess-halls.  They  all 
volunteered.  Probably  no  one  can  quite  re- 
sist the  cheering  influence  of  gathering  and 

14 


CAMP  UPTON 

decorating  with  Christmas  greens ;  and  the  rain 
didn't  matter,  for  it  never  does  except  to  the 
homeless ;  and  the  Red  Cross  sent  to  every  one 
in  camp  a  package  prettily  tied  with  ribbons, 
enclosing  things  to  eat  or  smoke,  and  things 
to  play  with  or  use,  and  a  card  of  Christmas 
greeting  from  some  girl,  unknown  and  there- 
fore lovely;  and  the  small  numbers  led  to  a 
new  intimacy,  and  the  loneliness  of  the  bar- 
racks turned  to  a  cozy  seclusion;  and  Christ- 
mas found  its  way  again  into  the  heart. 

On  a  snowy  twenty- second  of  February  the 
Division  paraded  through  New  York  before 
one  of  the  largest  crowds  the  city  had  ever 
gathered,  and  was  greeted  with  very  consider- 
able enthusiasm.  Camp  Upton  was  proud  of 
what  it  had  produced,  only  regretting  that  it 
had  to  court-martial  so  many  of  its  members 
immediately  thereafter  for  lack  of  a  proper 
sense  of  when  the  festivities  were  over.  This 
event  being  passed,  the  mind  of  the  camp  be- 
gan seriously  to  concentrate  on  the  coming  de- 
parture for  overseas,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that,  until  after  that  departure,  the  regi- 
ment never  really  found  itself.     In  probably 

15 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

every  company  one  or  two  N.  C.  O.'s  had 
shown  that  absolute  reliance  could  be  placed 
upon  them  as  leaders  of  their  men ;  for  a  much 
larger  number  it  was  confidently  hoped  that 
under  war-time  conditions  their  power  to  com- 
mand would  develop;  but  the  great  mass  of 
men  still  constituted  an  ununified,  unknown, 
and  very  insufficiently  trained  quantity,  who 
had  never  yet  learned  to  take  themselves  se- 
riously as  soldiers,  though  giving  no  evidence 
of  unwillingness  to  serve.  A  resifting  of  offi- 
cers now  took  place  to  eliminate  the  supernu- 
meraries, and  further  effort  was  made,  though 
with  very  partial  success,  to  get  rid  of  the  men 
known  to  be  physically  or  mentally  incompe- 
tent. 

The  question  of  equipment  assumed  a  lead- 
ing role.  There  were  lectures  and  bulletins  to 
officers  on  the  subject  of  their  appropriate  and 
necessary  equipment — a  selection  of  articles 
seeming,  in  the  light  of  after  experience,  rath- 
er extraordinary.  Equipment  C  for  the  troops 
was  eventually  defined,  and  the  Gordian  tangle 
of  property  responsibility,  brought  about  by 
the  wholesale  and  simultaneous  equipment  and 

16 


CAMP  UPTON 

transfer  of  masses  of  men  without  any  author- 
ized or  recognized  forms  for  receipt,  which  had 
hung  broodingly  in  the  background  for  months, 
was  finally  severed,  as  Gordian  tangles  only 
can  be.  Some  notes  from  a  diary,  kept  at  this 
time  by  the  author,  will  perhaps  best  picture 
the  beginning  of  April. 

"April  4th. — Equipment  C  blocks  the  hori- 
zon, together  with  the  number  of  packing  cases 
to  be  allowed,  and  where  they  are  to  come  from. 
Some  of  the  companies  have  over  thirty.  We 
haven't;  but  the  First  Sergeant  promises  to 
produce  an  average  of  two  or  three  per  night. 
Our  fifteen  square-headed  shovels  have  dwin- 
dled to  twelve,  though  we  have  four  or  five 
round-headed  ones,  apparently  of  no  use  for 
digging  trenches.  All  efforts  to  exchange  them 
through  regular  channels  having  failed,  the 
First  Sergeant  is  sending  out  men  in  couples 
this  evening,  with  one  shovel  per  couple,  to 
quarrel  in  the  vicinity  of  distant  coalbins,  and 
try  to  change  the  shape  of  their  heads.  ( Later. ) 
We  have  fifteen  square-headed  shovels. 

"April  5th. — We  are  to  be  recruited  to  full 
strength  and  packed  to-day.  Have  received 
165  new  men  off  and  on  in  the  past  month ;  240 
now  on  the  Morning  Report ;  the  packing  cases 

17 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

are  being  held  open  till  we  know  how  many 
we  take  and  whom.  At  10  A.  M.  got  in  seven 
recruits,  and  at  10  P.  M.  eleven  more — making 
us  over  strength.  The  mechanics  worked  till 
midnight  last  night  packing  up,  and  till  noon 
unpacking.  The  A.W.O.L.'s,  absent  sick,  and 
venereals  transferred  out  about  10:30  P.  M. 
Formed  the  company  after  supper  and  stacked 
arms  and  packs  in  company  street,  forming 
again  on  stacks  at  11  P.  M.  and  again  at  3 
A.  M.  Policing  continuous  and  apparently 
hopeless.  Every  time  I  walked  round  the  bar- 
racks I  found  a  new  pile  of  decaying  quilts 
and  underclothes  stacked  on  the  ash-stand. 
Nash  has  had  burning  and  burying  details  go- 
ing continuously.  When  the  last  fire  had  been 
extinguished  and  the  last  shovel  returned — at 
3  A.  M.  formation — I  found  the  store-room 
of  the  Annex  half -filled  with  straw  and  civilian 
clothes.  One  rather  hectic  detail  is  resorting 
and  packing  and  marking  the  barrack  bags  of 
those  transferred  out  for  those  transferred  in. 
The  boxes  left  at  11 :45  P.  M.  to  catch  a  twelve 
o'clock  train.  Night  very  cold — a  few  of  the 
men  drunk,  but  all  apparently  here. 

"April  6th. — Marched  out  under  arms  and 
packs  at  4 :15  A.  M.  All  squads  reported  full, 
all  material  shipped  or  turned  in  and  credited, 

18 


CAMP  UPTON 

and  all  paper  work  complete — rather  incred- 
ible. Night  turning  warmer  with  a  dying 
moon  in  the  east — a  silent  march  through  a 
silent,  deserted  camp,  bringing  unexpected  re- 
grets of  farewell. 

"  ( Later. )  A  cloudless  morning.  (Got  into 
Long  Island  City  about  7  A.  M.  and  ferried 
around  Battery  Park  to  the  White  Star  docks. 
Scattered  cheering  from  the  other  ferries  we 
passed  and  from  a  small  crowd  gathered  along 
the  Battery.  Our  ship — the  Justicia — looks 
huge,  and  the  officers'  quarters  as  princely  as 
those  of  the  men  look  crowded  and  poor. 

"April  7th. — Got  under  way  about  7:30  A. 
M.  I  was  too  busy  below  to  wave  a  farewell  to 
the  city  but  there  was  no  send-off.  The  men  are 
arranged  with  the  utmost  confusion — squads, 
platoons,  companies,  and  even  regiments — for 
we  carry  one  battalion  of  the  308th — all  rather 
hopelessly  mingled  and  so  assigned  to  places. 
My  fourth  platoon  is  in  four  different  parts  of 
the  ship,  with  the  Friday  night  recruits  mostly 
in  first-class  cabins,  while  the  balance  of  the 
company  is  herded  in  hammocks,  that  almost 
overlap,  four  decks  below.  Some,  having  no 
assignments  to  quarters  or  mess,  are  sleeping 
on  tables  and  begging  food,  my  mess-sergeant 
among  them.     No  company  officers  were  al- 

19 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

lowed  on  board  until  after  the  men  were  placed 
by  the  shipping  authorities,  and  the  men  were 
loaded  simultaneously  by  three  gangways.  Re- 
arrangement has  to  be  surreptitious  as  it  is 
forbidden  by  the  ship's  officer.  Port-holes 
are  painted  black,  fixed  shut,  and  covered 
on  the  inside  with  zinc  shields — which  means 
we  can  have  lights.  No  one  on  deck  after 
8  P.M. 

"April  8th. — We  got  the  men's  quarters  po- 
liced and  scrubbed;  and  with  the  hammocks 
stowed  they  do  look  livable.  Then  we  stood 
for  some  hours  on  boat  drill.  We  are  told  that 
there  is  ample  accommodation  for  all  in  case 
of  accident,  but  I  believe  that  the  swimmers 
holding  to  the  edge  of  the  rafts  are  included 
among  those  accommodated.  That  would  be 
poor  at  this  season  of  the  year,  and  there  cer- 
tainly are  not  enough  boats.  Life  preservers 
are  never  to  be  left  out  of  reach — a  sort  of  fore- 
warning of  gas-masks. 

"We  sighted  Nova  Scotia  about  5  P.M.  and 
passed  the  outer  lighthouse  of  Halifax  at  sun- 
set, anchoring  far  up  in  the  inner  harbor. 

"April  9th. — A  thin  skim  of  glare  ice  over 
all  the  harbor,  reflecting  in  sunshine  the 
screaming  flocks  of  gulls;  hoar-frost  along  the 

20 


CAMP  UPTON 

rails,  and  snow  over  the  black,  spruce-clad 
shores.  The  ocean  and  city  are  completely 
hidden  by  infolding  hills.  Boats  were  lowered 
at  boat-drill  and  rowed  about  through  the  thin 
ice.  The  Lapland  came  in  behind  us,  and 
a  transport  of  Australians  is  anchored  ahead. 
We  weighed  anchor  about  5  P.M.  and  pulled 
out  in  long  succession  through  the  narrow 
channel — eight  transports  in  column.  Women 
and  children  gathered  in  groups  along  the 
shore  holding  out  the  Stars  and  Stripes  to  us ; 
it  seemed,  too,  to  fly  from  the  window  of  every 
cottage;  the  crews  of  the  British  ships  and 
U.  S.  men-of-war  lined  their  rails  to  cheer  us 
as  we  passed,  their  bands  playing  with  their 
whole  souls.  It  was  everything  we  had  wanted 
and  missed  at  New  York,  and  one  felt  the 
tingling  grip  of  brotherhood  in  the  great  world 
struggle  on  which  we  were  launched.  'God 
Save  the  King,'  'The  Star-Spangled  Ban- 
ner,' 'The  Marseillaise,'  and  'The  Girl  I 
Left  Behind  Me' — high  resolve  and  dear  re- 
gret, the  warm  throb  of  blood  and  the  grip  of 
cold  steel;  it  was  war  and  the  long  good-by  at 
last.  God  grant  that  we  do  our  part.  The 
spires  and  roofs  of  Halifax  lifted  flat  and 
purple  against  the  yellow  twilight  under  an 
arch  of  rosy  cloud ;  then  the  ruins  of  the  lower 

21 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

city  swept  and  crumpled  like  a  village  in 
France ;  on  our  port  the  wreck  of  the  Belgian 
Relief  Ship,  half-submerged,  the  sunset-gilded 
spruce  woods  and  sandy  islands,  the  quaint  old 
white  lighthouse,  and  the  open  sea." 


CHAPTER  II 

WITH  THE  BRITISH 

The  convoy  sailed  for  the^  most  (part  in 
double  line  under  escort  of  the  cruiser  St. 
Louis.  Little  occurred  beyond  the  usual  ru- 
mors of  a  sortie  by  the  German  fleet — most  of 
whom  were  supposed  to  have  gotten  through — 
or  some  sudden  semaphoring  from  ship  to  ship 
and  activity  on  the  part  of  the  St.  Louis,  later 
explained  by  the  presence  of  a  whale. 

On  the  evening  of  the  seventeenth  an  escort 
of  seven  British  destroyers  appeared,  ducking 
and  dodging  through  the  spume  like  a  school 
of  porpoises,  and  at  dusk  of  the  nineteenth  the 
Justicia  was  docked  at  Liverpool.  The  troops 
were  disembarked  between  ten  and  eleven 
P.M.,  and,  looking  their  last  on  the  great  ship 
which  loomed  above,  incredibly  vast  in  the 
smoky  moonlight,  were  placed  directly  upon 
train  for  Dover.  The  journey  was  bitterly 
cold,  and  impressions  of  England  were  only 

23 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

cheered  by  the  sight  of  an  unusually  pretty  girl 
serving  coffee  during  a  halt  at  Rugby  about 
three  A.M.,  and  by  a  clear  sunrise  over  a  coun- 
try white  with  hoar-frost  and  cherry-blossoms. 
Arriving  at  Dover  about  eight  A.M.  the  troops 
were  marched  under  packs  to  what  appeared 
to  be  the  summit  of  the  highest  hill  in  the 
neighborhood  for  breakfast,  and  then  imme- 
diately back  to  the  steamer.  Nobody  liked 
England ;  but  the  Channel  presented  a  picture 
of  her  grip  of  the  seas — wreathed  in  the  smoke 
of  innumerable  destroyers,  above  which  hov- 
ered aeroplanes  and  dirigibles  on  watch,  and 
somewhere  the  distant  firing  of  guns. 

Reaching  Calais  in  the  early  afternoon  of 
April  20,  the  battalions  were  marched  to  dif- 
ferent Rest  Camps  and  billeted,  rather  crowd- 
edly,  in  tents  sunk  a  few  feet  under  ground 
for  protection  from  aerobombs.  The  baptism 
of  fire,  though  very  mild,  was  immediate. 
Shortly  before  midnight  the  siren  wailed  out 
its  alarm  over  camp;  then  came  the  discharge 
of  guns,  the  soaring  scream  of  projectiles,  the 
occasional  soft  "thut"  of  a  bullet  falling  into 
the  sand,  and  the  shock  of  explosives  beyond 

24 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

the  canal  in  the  city.  From  somewhere  over- 
head amid  the  weaving  and  crossing  search- 
lights, and  the  sparkling  flash  of  shrapnel, 
could  be  heard  the  recurrent  whirr  of  German 
motors — later  so  familiar  a  sound — but  only 
the  city  of  Calais  paid  whatever  price  was  to 

pay. 

Two  days  were  spent  in  fitting  and  drawing 
gas-masks,  steel  helmets,  and  ammunition,  and 
exchanging  rifles  for  the  British  arm;  and  at 
noon  of  the  twenty-third,  leaving  a  few  sick 
behind,  the  troops  were  marched  to  the  station 
at  Calais  and  carried  by  train  some  twenty 
kilometers  to  Audriq.  From  this  point  the 
battalions  were  marched  to  their  different 
training  areas — the  First  at  Zouafque,  the 
Second  at  Nordasque,  the  Third  at  Louches, 
and  Regimental  Headquarters  at  Tournehem. 
The  marches  were  not  long,  varying  from  ten 
to  fourteen  kilometers,  but,  as  had  been  an- 
ticipated, the  packs  proved  too  heavy  for  all 
except  the  strong  men.  They  carried  at  this 
time  two  blankets,  shelter-half  with  pole  and 
pins,  -overcoat,  slicker,  extra  boots  and  under- 
clothes, two  days'  rations,  rifle,  bayonet,  can- 

25 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

teen,  and  150  rounds  of  ammunition,  forming 
a  pack  which  came  down  to  the  knees  of  the 
smaller  men.  It  was  a  punishing  march,  ac- 
centuated in  the  case  of  the  Third  Battalion 
by  the  guide  losing  the  way,  and  the  beauties 
of  spring  in  the  French  lanes  were  apparent 
to  few  accept  those  on  horseback. 

In  these  areas  the  battalions  stayed  for  three 
weeks,  making  their  first  acquaintance  with 
French  villages  and  billets,  with  their  distant 
picturesque  charm  and  their  nearby  atmos- 
phere of  all-pervading  manure  heaps.  Lieu- 
tenants and  N.  C.  O.'s  from  every  company 
were  sent  to  specialist  schools,  principally  for 
the  Lewis  Gun;  the  captains  were  sent  on 
three-  or  four-day  visits  to  the  British  front 
line  south  of  Arras — a  dreary  stretch  of  half- 
dug  trenches  in  the  mud,  rambling  through 
shattered  hamlets  and  golden  fields  of  dande- 
lions, where  the  sniper  fired  across  six  or  eight 
hundred  yards  of  rusted  wire — mostly  Ger- 
man— and  life  was  made  equally  unhappy  by 
the  enemy's  minenwerfers  and  one's  own  six- 
inch  "hows." 

The  writer  was  assigned  to  a  part  of  the 
26 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

line  held  by  the  First  Royal  Berkshires  and 
then  taken  over  by  the  K.  R.  R.;  and  he  was 
privileged  to  accompany  a  captain  of  the  lat- 
ter on  his  initial  inspection  of  the  front.  It 
was  a  night  of  gusty  rain  and  of  utter  dark- 
ness, but  the  British  captain,  a  veteran  of  the 
South  African  War,  treated  it  as  though  it 
were  a  pleasant  afternoon,  and  No  Man's  Land 
as  though  it  were  his  own  front  garden.  He 
took  up  a  pick  helve,  which  he  carried  in  lieu 
of  a  walking  stick,  and  the  two  started  forth. 
There  was  little  difficulty  in  scaling  the  front 
parapet — one  merely  stepped  out  of  it — but 
soon  afterwards  one's  impressions  became  con- 
fused. They  crossed  belts  of  wire  as  though 
it  had  been  an  obstacle  race;  they  skirted  in- 
visible shell  craters  almost  on  the  run;  they 
leaped  chasm-like  trenches  on  faith  that  there 
was  a  farther  side;  occasionally  they  stopped 
to  listen,  but  for  the  most  part  they  simply 
traveled,  and  at  a  speed  seeming  quite  beyond 
reason.  After  perhaps  an  hour  and  a  half 
there  were  voices ;  and,  just  as  the  writer  was 
preparing  to  sell  his  life  dearly,  they  dove 
through  a  blanket  into  the  covered  shelter  from 

27 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

which  they  had  first  started,  and  the  English 
captain  began  at  once  issuing  minute  instruc- 
tions for  the  wiring  of  empty  gaps  in  the  line, 
for  the  improvement  of  certain  lengths  of 
trench,  and  for  the  relocation  of  some  of  his 
Lewis  guns. 

This  was  a  time  of  anxious  waiting  for  all 
in  France.  Two  great  .German  blows  had 
already  been  delivered  that  spring,  and  from 
the  force  of  their  impact  the  British  army  had 
reeled  back  defeated  and  all  but  crushed.  The 
face  of  the  war,  brightening  greatly  during  the 
last  two  years,  had  in  a  month  become  horribly 
changed.  The  future  seemed  more  than  doubt- 
ful; it  seemed  desperate.  France  had  little 
left  to  bring  to  a  losing  war,  and  England,  un- 
conquerable England,  awaited  the  next  blow 
with  a  grimness  akin  to  despair,  and  her  mind 
already  prepared  for  a  peace  which  should 
bring  no  victory.  This  at  least  was  the  spirit 
encountered  among  the  British  troops,  of 
whom  a  captain,  wearing  the  ribbons  of  the 
•M.  C.  and  D.  S.  O.,  with  whom  the  present 
writer  had  become  intimate,  said  to  him  one 
day,  as  though  encouragingly:  "Now  that  you 

28 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

Americans  have  come  over  I  feel  sure,  sure, 
that  you'll  find  we'll  stick  it  out.  Otherwise, 
I  think  we  would  have  patched  up  some  sort 
of  a  peace  this  spring,  but  now  I'm  sure  that 
we'll  carry  on  some  way." 

And  the  National  Army  had  never  dreamed 
it.  Their  only  thought  had  been  that  they 
might  not  be  in  time  to  share  the  victory  with 
their  Allies.  But  now  they  learned  to  listen 
to  the  dull  orchestra  of  the  guns  at  night,  and 
to  try  to  guess  at  their  message.  Rumor,  un- 
official but  persistent,  had  said  that  when  next 
the  Germans  struck  all  troops,  trained  or  un- 
trained, were  to  be  flung  in  their  path — for  all 
would  likely  be  needed. 

Captain  Illingworth,  an  English  officer  of 
the  16th  Sherwood  Foresters,  with  his  staff  of 
specialist  N.  C.  O.'s,  was  assigned  temporarily 
to  the  regiment  to  assist  in  the  instruction  of 
the  troops;  and  he  rendered  in  this  a  very  real 
service,  though,  as  always  heretofore,  the  lack 
of  adequate  training  ground  was  keenly  felt, 
and  the  French  in  this  region  were  far  from 
generous  in  making  such  available.  Yet  thir- 
ty-yard rifle-ranges  with  reduced  targets  were 

29 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

improvised,  where  the  men  learned  the  use  of 
their  new  weapons ;  and  the  Lewis  Gun  teams, 
four  to  each  platoon,  picked  from  the  best  ma- 
terial, took  hold  of  their  work  with  genuine 
enthusiasm,  evincing  the  first  real  esprit  de 
corps  to  be  developed. 

On  May  fourteenth,  after  three  weeks  of 
almost  daily  rain,  the  battalions  marched  again 
to  Audriq,  where  they  took  train  to  Mondi- 
court,  some  25  kilometers  southwest  of  Arras. 
Here  they  were  to  be  brigaded  for  training, 
and  it  was  thought  also  for  combat,  with  dif- 
ferent battalions  of  Manchester  and  East  Lan- 
cashire troops,  of  the  Forty-second  British 
Division.  The  First  battalion  at  Couin,  the 
Second  at  Henu,  and  the  Third  with  Regi- 
mental Headquarters  at  Pas,  were  all  within 
a  radius  of  three  kilometers.  It  was  an  im- 
pressive arrival,  the  short  march  from  Mondi- 
court,  before  dawn  on  the  fifteenth,  through 
the  sleeping,  starlit  village,  with  the  nearer 
sound  of  the  guns  along  the  front,  the  climbing 
white  caterpillar-lights,  and,  somewhere  in  the 
darkness  ahead,  a  British  band  playing  the 
troops  magnificently  in.     They  know  how  to 

30 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

use  their  music,  the  British,  and  it  seemed 
strange  that  the  regiment  should  leave  Amer- 
ica in  the  silence  of  the  plague-stricken,  to  be 
escorted  into  the  forward  area  with  a  brass 
band. 

The  three  weeks  here  spent  were  probably 
the  pleasantest  in  the  army  experience  of  any, 
either  theretofore  or  thereafter.  The  country 
was  beautiful,  the  weather  immaculate,  the 
training  systematic  and  efficient.  Save  for  the 
infrequent  passage  or  seemingly  unaimed  ar- 
rival of  a  shell  in  the  wheatflelds,  or  the  more 
frequent  and  important  shortage  in  rations, 
there  was  little  to  mar  the  tranquillity  of  the 
summer  days.  The  troops  were  quartered  in 
large  conical  or  small  shelter-tents,  as  the  case 
might  be,  along  the  edge  of  the  splendid  beech- 
woods,  and,  if  only  they  could  have  learned  to 
like  the  British  ration,  British  shoes,  and  Brit- 
ish Tommy,  might  have  been  perfectly  happy. 
But  the  first  was  too  short,  the  second  too  flat, 
and  the  trouble  with  the  last  rather  difficult  to 
determine.  Unfortunately  the  American  sol- 
dier, probably  harking  back  to  the  injurious 
history  books  of  school-days,  decided  to  hate 

31 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

him ;  yet  the  feeling  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
reciprocal,  and  nothing  could  have  exceeded 
the  hospitality,  courtesy,  and  welcoming, 
painstaking  kindliness  of  the  British  officers. 
There  were  dinners  given,  principally  by  the 
East  Lancashires,  frequent  and  astonishingly 
elaborate  banquets,  with  delicious  food  and  ex- 
cellent wines,  with  music  and  song  and  story; 
and  the  British  officers  came  riding  in  on  their 
splendid,  well-groomed  horses,  with  sparkling 
equipment;  and  the  American  officers  joined 
them  upon  less  striking  steeds,  with  patched 
saddles  borrowed  from  some  muleteer,  and 
strips  of  rusty  leather  knotted  into  the  length 
of  reins ;  and  they  gathered  together  under  the 
leafy  beech- wood,  carefree,  or  forgetful  of  care, 
while  behind  the  sound  of  the  singing,  and  the 
laughter,  and  the  music,  there  hung,  like  a  cur- 
tain across  the  distance,  the  steady  thunder  of 
the  guns.  Their  stories  never  were  of  the  war, 
nor  did  their  songs  refer  to  it. 

Now  I,  friend,  drink  to  thee,  friend, 

As  my  friend  drank  to  me, 
And  as  my  friend  charged  me,  friend, 

So  I,  friend,  charge  thee. 

32 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

That  thou,  friend,  drink  to  thy  friend, 

As  my  friend  drank  to  me, 
And  the  more  we  drink  together 

The  merrier  we'll  be. 

(Chorus,  all  together) 

And  the  more  we  drink  together 
The  merrier  we'll  be. 

Brave,  gallant  gentlemen,  their  division  was 
heavily  hit  before  the  end  of  summer,  and  often 
one  wonders  how  many  are  still  left  of  that  gay 
gathering. 

The  British  Tommies  gave  open-air  vaude- 
ville performances  in  costume  every  week,  at 
which  all  American  troops  were  always  made 
welcome;  and  when  one  day  an  American 
Company  established  a  new  record  of  rifle-fire 
on  the  bullet  and  bayonet  course,  the  British 
Sergeant-Major  in  charge  of  the  course  spread 
the  news  with  an  enthusiasm  and  pride  far  be- 
yond what  he  would  have  felt  for  a  similar 
achievement  by  his  own  men.  The  writer  cap- 
tained a  battalion  rifle-team  to  victory  against 
the  team  of  a  British  battalion.  The  opposing 
scores  were  very  close,  the  Americans  winning 
by  a  narrow  margin  because  two  of  their  op- 

33 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ponents  had  done  very  poorly.  They  were 
heartily  congratulated  on  their  victory  and  no 
whisper  of  protest  was  heard.  Not  till  after- 
ward, and  quite  by  accident,  did  the  writer 
discover  that  when,  at  the  request  of  the  Brit- 
ish Major,  he  had  given  the  signal  for  the 
British  team  to  commence  firing — and  the 
match  was  solely  one  of  rapid  fire — these  two 
members  of  the  team  had  been  waiting  for  a 
preliminary  order  to  load  their  magazines. 
Rather  than  interrupt  an  American  officer,  un- 
familiar with  their  technique,  or  insist  upon 
an  even  break,  they  had  started  on  a  competi- 
tion in  rapid  fire  with  empty  magazines,  and 
cheerfully  accepted  the  resultant  defeat;  and 
though  every  member  of  their  team  knew  it, 
none  had  mentioned  it. 

At  an  American  inter-company  Sunday 
baseball  game,  Major-General  Sully-Flood, 
a  splendid  type  of  British  officer  and  gentle- 
man, appeared  as  a  very  interested  spectator, 
and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  game  expressed  a 
wish  to  take  a  turn  at  the  bat.  The  American 
pitcher,  a  lean,  loose- jointed  Yankee,  gave  him 
a  swift  but  straight  ball,  and  the  General 

34 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

knocked  out  something  like  a  home-run.     K 
was  almost  as  good  as  an  Allied  victory. 

On  June  sixth,  and  most  regrettably  just  as 
these  British  units  were  about  to  return  to  the 
line  in  expectation  of  taking  with  them  the 
battalions  of  the  307th,  with  whom  they  had 
more  than  equally  divided  their  limited  train- 
ing grounds,  all  British  equipment  was  ordered 
turned  in,  including  rifles  and  the  now  beloved 
Lewis  Guns,  and  the  regiment  marched  west. 
The  suddenness  of  this  change  at  the  moment 
of  coming  action  was  mortifying  in  the  ex- 
treme, for  it  seemed  almost  like  desertion  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy.  There  might  well  have 
been  a  little  jeering  from  the  British,  but  there 
was  none.  Instead,  to  their  honor  be  it  said, 
a  British  band,  hurriedly  assembled,  played 
them  out  upon  their  way;  and  with  generous 
courtesy  Major-General  Sully-Flood  stood  at 
a  cross-roads  to  salute  and  shake  hands  with 
the  officers  as  they  passed,  and  to  wish  them 
the  best  of  luck.  Their  true  sporting  spirit 
taught  the  British  how  they  themselves  would 
have  felt  under  like  circumstances;  with  in- 
stinctive generosity  they  attributed  a  like  view- 

85 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

point  to  their  friends,  and  one  loved  them  for 
it. 

A  four-day  march  was  made  to  the  entrain- 
ing points  at  Longpre  and  Saint  Remy,  the 
First  Battalion  halting  at  Gezaincourt,  Berna- 
ville,  and  Ailly-le-Haut-Clocher,  the  Second 
at  Longueville,  Vacquerie,  and  Famechon,  and 
the  Third  at  Candas,  Berneuil,  and  Ailly-le- 
Haut-Clocher.  The  first  day's  march  only 
was  severe,  some  twenty-four  kilometers,  at 
the  end  of  which  rifles  and  ammunition  were 
issued  from  trucks.  The  men's  packs  had  been 
reduced  by  one  blanket,  and  it  had  been  pos- 
sible to  get  rid  of  the  worst  of  the  flat-footed 
to  special  duty,  so  the  march  was  not  unpleas- 
ant, and  speculation  was  rife  as  to  whither  it 
was  leading.  The  wide  valley  of  the  Somme, 
with  its  intricate  maze  of  canals  and  lagoons 
glittering  in  sunshine  through  the  foliage  of 
innumerable  lines  of  poplars,  was  a  picture  to 
cherish. 

The  journey  by  train  led  west  and  south, 
skirting  Paris,  then  southeast  to  the  Moselle, 
where  the  regiment  was  detrained  at  Chatel 
and  Thaon  on  the  night  of  June  eleventh. 

36 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

Save  for  the  cold  of  the  nights  and  the  inevit- 
able discomfort  of  cattle-cars,  it  was  a  mem- 
orable journey.  The  civilian  population  of 
every  town  flocked  to  windows  and  gardens  to 
wave  and  cheer  to  "les  Americains" ;  at  every 
halt  the  loveliest  in  the  land  seemed  to  have 
been  gathered  to  give  out  coffee  and  flowers 
along  the  station  platforms;  and  at  one  mo- 
mentary stop  outside  a  tunnel  a  particularly 
sweet-looking  French  girl  was  found,  by 
chance  or  otherwise,  picking  flowers  beside  the 
track.  Having  been  kissed  by  one  soldier,  she 
continued  generously  along  the  length  of  the 
train,  showing  little  or  no  favoritism,  and,  as 
the  train  moved  on  through  the  tunnel,  her 
figure,  in  black  silhouette  against  the  dimin- 
ishing arch  of  sunshine,  kissing  her  hand  again 
and  again  into  the  darkness,  left  a  picture  such 
as  is  good  for  fighting  men  to  carry  with  them. 
Detraining  toward  midnight,  the  battalions 
moved,  the  First  to  Longchamps  and  Gire- 
court,  the  Second  to  Bult,  the  Third  to  Ser- 
coeur  and  Dompierre,  and  Regimental  Head- 
quarters to  Padoux.  To  show  the  contrast  in 
hospitality  of  the  people  in  this  region  to  that 

87 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

accorded  the  troops  in  the  north,  a  letter  writ- 
ten at  this  time  is  worth  quoting  in  part : 

"Being  mounted,  I  rode  ahead  through  the 
darkness  two  or  three  miles  to  Vaxoncourt, 
where  my  company  and  another  were  to  spend 
the  rest  of  the  night,  for  it  seemed  unlikely 
that  any  arrangements  had  been  made  for  bil- 
leting the  men.  The  village,  on  a  little  rocky 
hill  surrounded  by  streams,  was  sound  asleep, 
and  I  rode  through  its  silent  streets  looking 
in  vain  for  any  light.  Then,  knocking  with 
my  whip  at  a  shutter,  I  was  told  by  a  surprised 
and  sleepy  voice  where  the  mayor  lived,  and 
pounded  also  at  his  shutter.  The  mayor  slept 
well,  but  finally  thrust  out  a  nightcapped  head 
to  ask  what  was  the  matter.  I  told  him  that 
five  hundred  American  troops  were  coming  to 
billet  in  his  village,  but  he  said  it  was  not  pos- 
sible that  such  a  thing  should  happen,  for  it 
was  after  one  o'clock.  I  explained  that  never- 
theless I  had  only  distanced  them  by  the  gait 
of  my  horse,  and  wanted  him  to  help  me  ar- 
range billets  for  them.  He  retired  muttering, 
more  dazedly  than  in  ill-humor,  and  soon  ap- 
peared in  ulster  and  wooden  sabots  with  a  lan- 
tern. We  went  through  the  village,  waking 
every  one  with  the  good  news  that  the  Ameri- 

38 


WITH  THE  BRITISH 

cans  were  coming,  till  we  had  something  like 
a  full  town-meeting  gathered  with  lanterns  in 
the  public  square.  They  treated  it  rather  like 
a  fete,  every  one  lending  a  hand,  pulling  out 
wagons  from  the  barns,  setting  ladders  to  the 
lofts,  making  up  beds  for  the  officers,  and 
standing  with  lanterns  at  their  doorways  to 
welcome  their  allotment ;  so  that  when  the  col- 
umn arrived,  about  half  an  hour  behind  me, 
they  were  marched  straight  to  billets  without 
a  pause.  I  got  a  splendid  room  overlooking 
the  meadows  and  orchards  at  the  edge  of  town, 
where,  in  the  morning,  a  beaming  old  woman 
brought  me  in  a  great  bowl  of  hot  milk  and 
coffee,  fresh  bread,  and  a  precious  little  dish 
of  sugar — staunchly  refusing  to  be  paid  for  it. 
We  left  at  noon  the  same  day,  all  the  inhabit- 
ants who  were  not  working  in  the  fields  coming 
to  wave  us  good-by  and  offer  flowers. 

"At  Dompierre,  where  we  arrived  that  after- 
noon, the  feeling  seemed  to  be  just  the  same, 
though,  on  account  of  an  epidemic  of  mumps 
in  the  village,  we  had  the  men  pitch  shelter- 
halves  in  the  flat  meadows  along  the  stream. 
I  spent  the  next  morning  riding  about  looking 
for  drill-grounds,  as  we  expected  to  be  here  a 
week,  and  then  called  on  the  mayor.  I  told 
him  that  in  order  to  beat  the  Boche  the  men 

39 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

had  to  be  drilled  and  trained,  and  that  the  only- 
available  ground  seemed  to  be  the  recently  har- 
vested hay-meadows  along  the  bottom  of  the 
valley,  though  this  would  rather  interfere  with 
their  growing  a  second  crop.  He  said  they 
were  community  meadows,  and  if  I  thought 
them  necessary  for  drilling  the  troops  that  was 
probably  a  better  use  to  put  them  to  than 
growing  hay;  after  all,  we  were  at  war,  and 
the  village  did  not  want  to  be  paid  for  them. 
We  had  him  and  the  cure  and  the  town  gref- 
fier  to  dinner  a  few  nights  later,  and  it  was 
delightful  to  see  them,  with  a  glass  of  cham- 
pagne in  one  hand  and  a  slice  of  white  Amer- 
ican bread,  which  they  insisted  was  gateau,  in 
the  other,  beaming  at  us  as  they  tried  to  beat 
time  and  join  in  our  songs." 


CHAPTER  III 

LORRAINE 

On  June  seventeenth,  the  First  Battalion 
moved  to  the  ruined  hamlet  of  Mesnil,  the  high- 
water  mark  of  German  invasion  in  September, 
1914,  and  thence,  the  next  evening,  to  Vacque- 
ville,  a  dirty  and  inhospitable  little  village 
close  behind  the  rather  ill-defined  Line  of  Re- 
sistance. On  the  twentieth,  Battalion  Head- 
quarters moved  up  to  St.  Maurice,  with  com- 
panies D  and  A  on  the  front  and  support  of 
the  right  sector  at  Neuviller,  and  companies 
C  and  B  on  the  left  in  Grand  Bois,  relieving 
the  forward  elements  of  the  Forty- second  Di- 
vision on  the  line  during  the  night  of  the  twen- 
ty-first. The  Third  Battalion  moved  on  the 
eighteenth  to  the  meadows  outside  Rambervil- 
lers,  and  the  next  evening  through  the  town, 
against  the  turbulent  counter-current  of  the 
Forty-second's  Alabamans,  a  splendid-looking 

41 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

lot  of  men,  who  appeared  only  by  chance  to  be 
wearing  uniforms. 

With  darkness  came  rain,  at  first  a  few  large 
drops  and  then  a  roaring  cloudburst.  The 
evening  had  started  fair  and  the  raincoats  were 
stowed  inside  the  packs,  where  they  alone  re- 
mained dry.  Somewhere  in  the  drenching 
darkness  ahead  was  a  convoy  of  motor  ambu- 
lances, traveling  at  the  unexhausting  rate  of 
two  miles  an  hour,  and  halting  every  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes  for  repairs.  Then  the  rain 
ceased  and  moonlight  flooded  the  dark  spruce- 
wood,  lighting  mysterious  vistas  in  its  wet  and 
misty  depths.  Through  the  gaunt  ruins  and 
moon-blanched  streets  of  Mesnil  the  black  col- 
umn wound  its  way,  looking  beneath  its  gleam- 
ing steel  like  some  invading  host  of  old,  but 
feeling  less  romantic  than  tired  and  wet.  To- 
ward midnight  it  reached  Deneuvre  on  the  hill- 
top overlooking  Baccarat  and  billeted  amid  its 
crooked  alleys  in  barns  already  crowded  with 
troops  who  were  supposed  to  have  left. 

The  day  following  the  troops  moved  aeross 
the  Meurthe  to  the  Haxo  Barracks  of  Bacca- 
rat for  another  week  of  training,  including  the 

42 


LORRAINE 

first  firing  with  the  new  rifles  and  recently  is- 
sued chauchat  guns,  and  the  first  general  use 
of  rifle  and  live  hand-grenades.  The  initial 
nervousness  of  most  in  handling  the  latter,  and 
their  evident  desire  to  get  rid  of  them,  once 
the  detonator  had  been  fired,  in  almost  any 
direction,  was  ample  proof  of  the  value  of  this 
opportunity — without  which,  however,  the 
First  Battalion  had  entered  the  line.  On  the 
twenty-second,  the  Second  Battalion  took  sta- 
tion on  the  Line  of  Resistance  at  Vacqueville, 
where  Regimental  Headquarters  had  also  been 
located,  and  with  the  Supply  Company  at 
Creviller  the  regiment  had  established  itself 
in  its  new  sector. 

The  battalion  at  Haxo  Barracks  was  for 
rest  and  training;  that  at  Vacqueville  and  Les 
Carrieres  for  a  perfunctory  manning  of  the 
Line  of  Resistance  with  half-companies,  while 
the  rest  could  practice  their  chauchats  and  live 
grenades  in  the  nearby  quarry;  and  the  for- 
ward Battalion  held  two  companies  on  the  out- 
post line  and  two  on  the  Line  of  Support, 
which  was  in  fact  a  line  of  resistance,  that  in 
front  of  Vacqueville  not  yet  having  been  dug. 

43 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

The  region  about  and  behind  the  front  was 
of  vast  woodlands  alternating  with  open  and 
dusty  meadows.  In  places  the  woods  had  been 
blown  to  pieces  with  artillery  fire,  and  in  places 
the  meadows  were  pitted  with  craters  of  sun- 
cracked  clay.  One  particular  stretch  of  open 
marsh,  near  some  abandoned  artillery  emplace- 
ments on  the  Line  of  Resistance,  had  been 
churned  up  into  something  like  the  surface  of 
a  sponge,  and  still,  on  misty  nights,  reeked 
with  the  sickish  acid  smell  of  gas.  The  white 
dusty  roads  were  lined  with  dilapidated  fes- 
toons of  burlap,  or  screens  of  wilted  and  dust- 
covered  rushes — to  shelter  from  observation 
such  traffic  as  must  pass.  Little  half -ruined  vil- 
lages of  roofless  walls  and  tumbled  masonry, 
like  empty  sea  shells  upon  some  desolate  coast, 
lined  the  high-water  mark  of  early  invasion — 
and  in  the  center  of  each  rose  the  skeleton  of 
some  beautiful  old  church,  its  tower  pierced 
with  shell-holes  and  its  entrance  blocked  by  the 
fallen  chimes. 

The  line  was  throughout  jointly  held  with 
the  French  and  under  their  command,  one  pla- 
toon of  French  being  usually  interlarded  with 

44 


THE  ENTRANCE  BLOCKED  BY  THE  HI.I.IA  CHIMES 


LORRAINE 

two  of  Americans.  The  intention  was  for  the 
practical  instruction  of  inexperienced  troops 
in  trench-life  and  patrolling,  the  sector  being 
notoriously  a  quiet  one — in  fact  the  oppos- 
ing lines  were  substantially  as  determined  in 
the  first  winter  of  the  war.  But  while  the 
French,  especially  the  company  officers,  did 
their  very  best  to  produce  cooperation,  the  sys- 
tem was  not  regarded  as  successful  by  most  on 
the  American  side.  Extremely  few  of  the  of- 
ficers and  practically  none  of  the  enlisted  men 
could  speak  each  other's  language,  making 
whispered  consultations  in  No  Man's  Land 
somewhat  unfruitful  of  result;  the  orders  for 
the  defence  of  the  sector  were  written  in 
French  and  did  not  obtain  translation  until 
Major  Jay,  of  the  Second  Battalion,  so  trans- 
lated them  during  his  tenure  of  the  front ;  and 
the  habit  of  the  French  outposts  of  firing  on 
principle,  broadcast  through  the  night,  got  on 
the  unseasoned  American  nerves,  without  men- 
tioning the  resultant  danger  to  friendly  pa- 
trols who  were  trying  to  win  home. 

At  dawn  of  June  twenty-fourth  the  regi- 
ment and  the  brigade  first  came  to  hand-grips 

45 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

with  the  German,  with  results  largely  in  favor 
of  the  latter.    Neuviller,  a  tiny  ruined  village 


on  an  isolated  hill,  that  must  once  have  been 
a  very  pleasant  little  spot,  and  is  still,  though 
more  grimly,  picturesque,  with  its  loopholed 
cobblestone  barricades,  stood  out  as  a  danger- 

46 


LORRAINE 

ous  salient  from  the  French  lines.  The  road 
to  it  from  St.  Maurice  was  still  intact,  but 
counted  as  No  Man's  Land;  and  its  garrison 
of  two  American  platoons  and  one  French  had 
only  a  single  communicating  trench,  some  three 
hundred  yards  long,  connecting  it  across  the 
marsh,  for  retreat  or  reenforcement,  with  their 
supporting  troops  at  the  Moulin  des  Toes  and 
Buisson,  though  at  this  time  the  support  com- 
pany was  also  forward  in  the  Bois  de  la  Voivre. 
The  defences  of  the  village  were  an  extensive 
and  intricate  system  of  largely  abandoned 
trenches,  whose  fleld-of-flre,  in  so  far  as  it  had 
ever  existed,  was  in  great  measure  obscured 
by  overgrowing  bushes.  There  were  also  dug- 
outs, which  have  no  proper  place  on  an  out- 
post line,  and  all  indications  pointed  to  its  hav- 
ing been  originally  laid  out  for  a  purpose  quite 
different  from  that  for  which  it  was  now  being 
used.  Its  present  garrison  was  too  weak  for 
effective  defense  and  too  large  for  speedy  with- 
drawal; the  general  orders  of  the  Americans 
were  clear  about  holding  any  part  of  the  line 
entrusted  to  them;  the  policy  of  the  French, 
though  not  then  well  understood,  appeared  to 

47 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

be  to  withdraw  when  attacked  and  counter- 
attack. The  Americans  further  had  not  yet 
had  time  to  become  accustomed  either  to  their 
ground  or  to  their  weapons,  the  Machine  Gun 
Company,  which  had  two  guns  in  the  western 
outskirts  of  the  village,  and  one  near  the  Mou- 
lin des  Toes,  having  also  been  very  recently  re- 
armed with  Hotchkiss  guns  in  place  of  the 
Vickers,  and  very  insufficiently  armed  with 
automatic  pistols — only  three  to  the  squad  of 
eight  having  been  issued.  In  reference  to  the 
time  required  for  preparing  Americans  to  meet 
the  German  armies  in  the  field  it  is  worth  not- 
ing that  though  many  of  these  men  had  trained 
for  nine  months  as  soldiers,  yet,  due  to  this  ex- 
change of  arms,  they  first  entered  the  line  with 
weapons  with  which  less  than  fifty  per  cent  of 
their  teams  were  familiar.  This  on  the  307th 
front  was  the  setting  for  the  brief  drama;  with 
the  308th  on  the  right  at  Badonviller  the  re- 
sults obtained  indicated  much  the  same  condi- 
tions. 

About  three  A.  M.  of  the  twenty-fourth,  a 
single  shell  came  wailing  in  from  over  the 
Saillant  du  Feys  and  exploded  near  the  church; 

48 


LORRAINE 

two  more  followed,  and  then  the  storm  burst. 
It  extended  over  the  (Grand  Bois  des  Haies  on 
the  left,  through  St.  Maurice  and  the  Bois  de 
la  Voivre,  heavily  mixed  with  gas,  back  across 
the  Bois  des  Champs  and  over  Badonviller  on 
the  right,  with  a  storm-center  and  a  box-bar- 
rage over  Neuviller.  The  men  ducked  to  the 
nearest  shelter  and  waited;  they  waited  too 
long,  and  they  had  done  better  not  to  have 
ducked.  The  rocket  signal  for  counter-bar- 
rage brought  a  total  of  forty-two  shells  only 
from  allied  artillery.  After  nearly  an  hour 
of  intense  fire,  the  shelling  ceased  on  the  town, 
though  still  continuing  around  and  behind  it; 
there  was  hoarse  shouting  in  the  darkness,  and 
then  the  Germans  attacked.  They  attacked 
with  rifles,  hand-grenades,  light  machine-guns 
strapped  to  the  back,  heavy  machine-guns  from 
low-flying  aeroplanes,  aeroplane-bombs,  and 
with  flame-throwers;  and  they  came  in  from 
the  northwest  and  up  the  swamp  from  the 
southeast.  A  confused  fight  took  place  in  the 
gray  of  dawn  through  the  dense  smoke  of  the 
echoing  ruins.  The  French  had  for  the  most 
part  withdrawn  at  the  first  opportunity;  the 

49 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Americans,  broken  into  scattered  groups 
amidst  the  maze  of  trenches,  wire  hurdles,  and 
barricades,  fought  the  best  of  their  way  back 
to  the  St.  Maurice  road ;  a  number  were  caught 
in  the  dugouts  and  shelters,  and  bombed  or 
burned  to  death;  the  head  of  the  communica- 
tion trench  was  held  by  a  German  light  ma- 
chine-gun firing  down  it  to  prevent  reenf orce- 
ment.  A  stand  was  made  at  the  western  stone 
barricade  to  cover  the  scattered  retreat,  and 
the  black  tar-like  stains  over  its  front,  with  a 
few  charred  rifle-barrels  from  which  the  stocks 
had  been  burned  away,  bore  evidence  to  the 
nature  of  the  attack  upon  it.  The  report  of  a 
machine-gun  lieutenant  to  the  captain  of  that 
company  gives  a  few  interesting  details: 

"The  guns  were  in  emplacements  in  the  ex- 
treme west  end  of  the  village,  flanking  its  north 
front,  and  about  one  hundred  yards  apart,  the 
rear  gun  with  no  infantry  support  and  the  for- 
ward gun  with  two  chauchat  rifles  nearby.  At 
2:45  A.  M.  all  were  asleep  in  a  dugout  near 
the  rear  gun  except  one  American  and  one 
French  sentinel  at  each  gun. 

"While  returning  to  C.  R.  Neuviller  (i.  e.> 
50 


LORRAINE 

Buisson)  by  trench,  and  when  in  rear  of  Mou- 
lin des  Toes  I  was  sniped  at  twice,  one  shot 
hitting  the  top  of  the  parapet  in  front  of  me. 
I  had  just  arrived  at  the  C.  R.  when  at  3:05 
A.  M.  the  barrage  started.  I  aroused  my  pla- 
toon sergeant  and  we  went  to  M.  G.  A-20  (en- 
filading the  east  front  of  the  village).  This 
gun  was  in  action  despite  the  fact  that  several 
gas-shells  were  landing  close  to  its  emplace- 
ment. We  then  tried  to  get  over  to  Neuviller, 
but  were  stopped  by  a  Boche  auto-rifle,  which 
was  firing  from  the  village  along  the  trench. 
It  was  strapped  to  the  back  of  one  Boche  who 
lay  prone  while  it  was  fired  by  another.  Their 
contact  planes  were  especially  active  right 
above  us,  and  I  counted  six  at  one  time.  We 
were  forced  then  to  he  in  the  trench  and  wait. 
At  about  5:45  A.  M.  three  sharp  blasts  of  a 
whistle  were  heard  from  the  village,  which  must 
have  been  their  signal  for  withdrawal.  The 
barrage  had  ceased  and  we  now  entered  the 
village.  Here  I  found  considerable  confusion 
and  a  number  of  wounded,  to  whom  we  gave 
what  assistance  was  possible,  and  arranged  for 
men  to  assist  them  to  the  C.  R.  I  then  visited 
the  gun  positions.  At  the  rear  gun  I  found 
two  men  still  on  duty,  although  the  emplace- 
ment was  so  badly  knocked  to  pieces  by  shells 

51 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

that  it  was  useless.  At  the  forward  gun  I 
found  five  Americans  and  three  Frenchmen. 
Two  Americans  and  two  French  were  missing 
— the  former,  I  learned,  when  the  barrage 
opened,  had  remained  in  the  dugout,  which 
was  gradually  filling  up  with  soldiers  seeking 
refuge  there.  When  the  barrage  lifted  these 
two  came  out  of  the  dugout  and  met  Boches 
armed  with  hand  grenades.  They  fought  their 
way  through  them,  one  with  his  pistol,  and  the 
other,  being  unarmed,  with  his  fists.  An  auto- 
rifle opened  on  them  from  a  position  near  the 
barricade  about  75  yards  up  the  street  and 
he  who  was  unarmed  got  out  of  the  village  by 
the  rear  road ;  the  other  lay  down  in  the  gutter 
and  opened  fire  with  his  pistol.  He  had  emp- 
tied one  magazine  when  a  Boche  with  an  auto- 
rifle came  out  of  the  alley-way  to  his  right,  and, 
swinging  around  on  his  stomach,  he  emptied 
*;he  next  magazine  at  him,  and  he  believes  he 
got  him.  Having  no  more  ammunition  he  then 
left  the  village.  Meanwhile  the  BochesTiad 
thrown  two  grenades  into  the  doorway  of  the 
dugout  and  then  began  with  liquid  fire.  A 
corporal  slammed  the  door,  and  they  held  it 
shut  till  the  liquid  fire  had  burned  through  it, 
when  three  men  rushed  out  past  the  Boches  and 
into  the  street  to  the  forward  gun  position, 

52 


LORRAINE 

which  succeeded  in  firing  about  a  hundred 
rounds  while  the  Boches  were  withdrawing." 

"A"  Company,  in  support,  had  sent  up  a 
runner  who  succeeded  in  penetrating  the  bar- 
rage and,  though  wounded,  returned  with 
some  account  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  vil- 
lage. At  daylight  the  company,  with  some 
French  troops,  counter-attacked,  but  found  the 
battle  ground  deserted,  the  Germans  having, 
however,  taken  time  to  rifle  and  destroy  the 
stores  of  the  "D"  Company  kitchen  and  to  re- 
move their  own  casualties.  One  German,  a 
sergeant,  shot  dead  in  the  central  square,  and 
another,  transfixed  by  a  French  bayonet  in  the 
outer  wire,  were  all  that  remained.  "D"  Com- 
pany reckoned  seven  killed,  twenty-five 
wounded,  and  three  missing;  "C"  Company, 
one  killed,  and  two  wounded  from  artillery 
fire;  while  "B"  Company,  working  through 
the  ensuing  day  about  the  shell  holes  of  St. 
Maurice,  had  seventy  men  gassed.  The  left 
company  of  the  308th  had,  except  for  those 
gassed,  still  heavier  losses.  Of  the  number  of 
enemy  engaged  in  the  coup-de-main  no  fair 

53 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

estimate  can  be  formed,  though  information 
from  American  prisoners,  taken  at  this  time 
and  returned  after  the  armistice,  fairly  indi- 
cates that  a  special  force  was  brought  from 
elsewhere  for  the  attack,  departing  by  train 
from  Cirey  the  next  day,  and  that  their  losses, 
incurred  for  the  most  part  by  machine-gun 
fire  during  their  withdrawal,  were  quite  unex- 
pectedly heavy.  One  man  of  "D"  Company, 
whose  discretion  had  never  been  questioned, 
spent  the  entire  period  of  enemy  occupation 
beneath  the  company  rolling  kitchen,  main- 
taining a  strategic  silence  while  the  kitchen 
stores  were  being  looted,  and  even  while  the 
kitchen  itself  was  being  blown  up  with  gren- 
ades. He  emerged  to  greet  the  counter-at- 
tacking troops  of  "A"  Company,  and  seemed 
to  claim  a  certain  distinction  at  not  having  been 
driven  from  his  post  by  the  whole  of  the  Hin- 
denberg  Circus,  which  he  had  faced  ( ?)  single- 
handed. 

On  the  night  of  July  twenty-eighth,  the 
Second  Battalion  took  over  the  line,  the  Third 
Battalion  moving  to  Vacqueville,  Xermamont 
and  Les  Carrieres,  and  the  First  Battalion  to 

54 


*'«• 


A- 


Is 


%i 


«? 


%  0. 


V 


Jf  •  > 


. 


I 


BACCARAT— THE  WAKE  OF  EARLY   [NVASION 


LORRAINE 

Haxo  Barracks  at  Baccarat.  Oil  July  eighth 
the  Third  Battalion  took  the  front.  During 
this  time  there  had  been  little  or  no  activity 
beyond  nightly  patrols  into  the  vast  desert  of 
No  Man's  Land,  where  enemy  patrols  were 
seldom  encountered,  and  never  at  close  range, 
and  where  the  principal  danger  faced  was  from 
the  somewhat  nervous  fire  of  both  French  and 
American  outposts.  Patrols  occasionally  pen- 
etrated the  enemy  lines,  in  search  of  prisoners, 
at  the  Saillant  du  Feys  and  the  Arc  de  Mon- 
treux,  but  without  encountering  resistance. 
They  were  usually  ordered  so  to  penetrate  and 
reported  having  done  so — in  good  faith  but 
often  with  doubtful  accuracy,  for  in  that  laby- 
rinth of  old  wire,  crumbling  trenches,  un- 
mapped trails  and  willow  thickets  it  was  dif- 
ficult in  the  darkness  to  be  sure  of  position. 
By  this  time  the  garrison  at  Neuviller  had  been 
reduced  by  half,  with  orders  to  fall  back  on 
Buisson  as  soon  as  seriously  attacked;  the  re- 
mainder of  the  right  forward  company  carried 
the  outpost  line  from  the  Moulin  des  Toes 
southeast  along  the  edge  of  the  Bois  de  la 
Voivre,  and  formed  a  first  line  of  support,  as 

55 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

yet  unmarked  by  works,  across  the  swamp 
meadows  of  the  Blette  to  the  Faiencerie.  The 
Line  1  bis  of  support,  actually  of  resistance, 
ran  along  the  north  and  eastern  edge  of  the 
Bois  des  Champs  to  its  extremity  at  the  rail- 
road, with  Company  Headquarters  at  Le 
Creux  Chene,  forming  a  switch  line  with  that 
of  the  forward  company.  The  left  forward 
company  stretched  across  the  Bois  des  Haies 
toward  Ancerviller,  with  a  joint-post  near  the 
Mare  and  its  support  company  north  of  St. 
Maurice. 

On  July  fifteenth  came  word  that  the  long- 
expected  German  blow  had  fallen  on  the 
Marne,  bringing  something  of  relief  to  the 
troops  of  Lorraine,  and  on  the  sixteenth  the 
French  were  withdrawn  from  the  sector.  An 
incident  of  this  withdrawal,  as  given  in  a  let- 
ter at  the  time,  is  worth  recording: 

"The  withdrawal  of  the  French,  involving  a 
considerable  extension  of  our  front  to  right 
and  left  with  a  reassignment  of  limits,  had  been 
ordered  for  9  P.  M.  that  evening,  but  up  till 
noon  we  had  received  no  orders  as  to  that  re- 
assignment.   When  the  orders  had  come,  and 

56 


LORRAINE 

I  had  studied  them  for  a  while,  the  French 
captain,  of  whom  I  had  grown  quite  fond,  a 
curious-looking  individual  with  brilliantly  bald 
head,  very  long  nose,  and,  in  spite  of  their  reg- 
ulations, crimson  breeches,  came  over  to  ask 
if  everything  was  clear.  I  admitted  some  dif- 
ficulties since  the  orders  had  overestimated  the 
strength  of  my  company,  but  told  him  that  we 
would  make  out.  He  considered  for  a  while 
with  his  finger  beside  his  nose  and  then  made 
this  extraordinary  speech:  'The  orders  to 
me,'  he  said,  'are  to  have  withdrawn  my  whole 
command  by  nine  this  evening,  but  I  have  not 
yet  issued  any  to  my  men,  as  I  wanted  first  to 
be  sure  that  you  would  be  all  right.  Unless 
you  assure  me  that  you  are,  I  will  give  no  or- 
ders to-night.  I  am  not  of  the  regular  service; 
I  have  done  enough  to  establish  my  reputa- 
tion; and  I  don't  much  care  what  my  colonel 

thinks  of  me ;  but  I  will  be  d d  if  I  will  go 

off  and  leave  you  in  a  hole.  With  another 
French  officer  I  would  probably  not  feel  so, 
and  would  tell  him  that  his  difficulties  were  not 
of  my  making  and  he  must  do  his  best  with 
them ;  but  I  can't  do  that  to  an  American.  So 
say  the  word  and  I  stay.' 

"I  am  sure  that  the  proper  procedure  would 
have  been  to  kiss  him  on  either  cheek,  but  I 

57 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

couldn't  risk  the  technique.  Of  course  I  did 
not  say  the  word,  and  that  evening,  after  I  had 
taught  him  an  English  drinking  song,  which 
he  greatly  admired  but  seemed  incapable  of 
mastering,  he  marched  away  through  the 
woods,  still  humming  it  wrong.  I  missed  him 
greatly  and  the  pleasant  meals  we  had  had  to- 
gether in  the  little  rustic  summer-house  with 
the  rose  bushes,  at  the  edge  of  the  vast  oak 
wood  and  the  open  meadows  of  the  Blette;  and 
I  missed,  too,  the  long  midnight  talks  in  our 
sheet-iron  hut  in  the  greenwood,  when  he  had 
taught  me  all  that  his  long  experience  could 
tell  of  the  war. 

"That  night  I  withdrew  the  whole  garrison 
of  Neuviller,  save  one  outpost  in  the  west  end 
of  town,  establishing  a  new  platoon  headquar- 
ters at  St.  Agathe.  We  crept  out  in  silent  pro- 
cession over  the  starlit  meadows,  picking  our 
way  across  the  wake  of  the  old  box -barrage, 
which  showed  like  a  line  of  trenches  in  the 
darkness.  It  was  important  that  the  enemy 
should  not  know  that  the  village  would  be  left 
empty  at  night.  I  walked  at  the  head  of  the 
column  with  a  sergeant  clasping  to  his  breast 
the  huge  strombos  horn  used  for  alarms  of  a 
wave-gas  attack,  and,  having  jumped  the 
brook,  asked  him  if  he  could  make  it.    'Easily, 

58 


LORRAINE 

sir,'  he  answered,  as  he  fell  flat  on  his  chest 
across  it,  and  'Boo-oo-om'  went  the  great  horn, 
echoing  out  across  the  silent  meadows,  while, 
over  the  wide  battalion,  startled  soldiers 
snatched  on  their  gas-masks  and  prepared  for 
death.  When  at  last  we  had  choked  it  off  we 
could  only  sit  where  we  were  and  laugh  till  we 
were  tired." 

In  the  succeeding  days  there  seemed  a 
marked  increase  of  enemy  activity.  Reports 
were  constant  of  Germans  seen  at  dark  along 
the  Blette;  winking  flash-lights  were  some- 
times seen  at  night  in  the  Bois  des  Champs 
behind  the  lines;  and  both  by  day  and  night 
there  came  spasmodic  auto-rifle  fire  from  No 
Man's  Land  upon  the  outpost  line.  Yet  con- 
clusions were  never  reached  by  the  nightly  pa- 
trols, and  though  one  patrol  under  the  cap- 
tain of  "A"  Company  penetrated  as  far  to  the 
east  as  the  Tranchee  Philemon,  the  only  pris- 
oners captured  were  three  who  surrendered 
themselves  at  the  church  in  Neuviller  after 
living  there,  between  unsuccessful  efforts  at 
surrender,  for  nearly  a  day  and  a  night.  An 
earlier  German  patrol  in  the  village,  meeting 

59 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

one  from  men  unfamiliar  with  the  outpost  po- 
sitions, had  by  tact  and  a  judicious  use  of  Eng- 
lish obtained  the  password  for  the  night  and 
gratefully  withdrawn;  but  to  this  day  the  sub- 
ject cannot  be  safely  mentioned  to  the  Bat- 
talion Scout  Officer  whose  patrol  it  was. 

It  having  been  determined  that  on  July 
twenty-first  the  Americans  should  launch  a 
blow,  at  2  P.  M.  of  that  day,  the  First  Bat- 
talion again  holding  the  line,  Captain  Bar- 
rett of  "B"  Company  led  out  some  fifty  men 
through  the  thick  woods  on  the  left  front  to 
the  Barricade  du  Carrefour.  A  way  had  been 
cut  through  the  very  heavy  wire  in  front,  but 
there  was  no  artillery  preparation,  and  the  raid 
was  conducted  in  broad  daylight — presuppos- 
ing a  thinly  held  enemy  line  and  surprise. 
Whether  or  not  the  enemy  had  obtained  ad- 
vance information,  or  merely  had  accomplished 
very  quickly  their  preparations  after  warning 
from  scouts,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  The 
American  force  had  advanced  several  hundred 
yards,  and,  after  cutting  through  the  heavy 
wire  before  the  Barricade  du  Carrefour,  had 
passed  along  it  to  the  right,  when,  in  the  si- 

60 


LORRAINE 

lence,  came  the  clear  notes  of  a  German  bugle. 
Like  the  clarion  blare  of  trumpets,  when  the 
curtain  rose  on  an  old-world  pageant,  that 
brief  tragedy  opened.  A  line  of  German  in- 
fantry rose  up  in  a  trench  in  front;  enfilading 
machine-guns  opened  up  on  either  flank,  and 
across  the  wire  auto-rifles  fired  from  the  trees 
in  rear.  To  the  undying  credit  of  Captain  Bar- 
rett be  it  said  that  he  ordered  and  led  a  charge. 
His  one  lieutenant,  with  a  third  of  the  men, 
was  sent  to  cut  through  the  wire  to  the  rear, 
while  the  remainder  of  the  force,  against  hope- 
less odds,  tried  to  clear  the  front.  Poor,  brave, 
beloved  Captain  Barrett,  with  his  little  silk 
Confederate  flag  folded  in  his  breast  pocket, 
to  fly  from  the  first  enemy  trench  captured — 
never  was  the  flag  of  the  Lost  Cause  more  gal- 
lantly borne,  nor  to  more  utter  disaster.  Of 
that  charging  line  not  one  man  came  back,  the 
captain  reeling  from  a  wound  and  staggering 
on  to  death,  and  of  those  taken  prisoner  only 
one  was  unwounded.  But  the  others,  the  lieu- 
tenant and  sixteen  men,  came  through,  and 
two  were  unhurt.  The  score  of  the  First  Bat- 
talion was  mounting. 

61 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Captain  Barrett,  it  was  said  by  prisoners, 
was  buried  with  full  military  honors  at  Mon- 
treux,  toward  which  place  another  raid  was 
now  being  prepared  by  the  regiment.  A  pro- 
visional company  was  formed  from  the  Third 
Battalion,  then  at  Haxo  Barracks,  a  picked 
platoon  being  sent  with  one  lieutenant  from 
each  company  for  rehearsal  at  Vacqueville. 
Save  for  their  inexperience  this  was  probably 
as  fine  a  body  of  troops  as  was  ever  turned 
over  to  a  captain  for  any  enterprise — and  they 
were  keen,  fearfully  keen.  The  ground  se- 
lected by  brigade  for  the  attack  lay  adjacent 
to  that  "B"  had  traversed,  where  the  wire  was 
very  heavy  and  in  places  over  five  feet  high. 
Perhaps  this  was  the  reason  that  the  order  for 
attack  was  cancelled,  but  in  any  case  after 
three  days  at  Vacqueville  the  men  were  re- 
turned to  their  companies. 

The  First  Battalion  had  done  a  second  and 
prolonged  turn  of  duty  on  the  line ;  the  Head- 
quarters Company,  with  its  Stokes  mortars 
and  one-pound  cannon,  and  the  Machine  Gun 
Company,  had  never  left  the  line  at  all,  when, 
on  the  night  of  the  twenty-ninth,  began  the 

62 


LORRAINE 

relief  of  the  regiment  by  the  146th  Infantry, 
37th  Division,  the  latter  taking  over  first  the 
support  positions.  The  Second  Battalion  took 
over  the  front  from  the  First  Battalion  on  the 
thirtieth  and  were  themselves  relieved  by  the 
146th  on  the  night  of  August  third.  "B"  Com- 
pany had  been  temporarily  relieved  by  "E"  for 
three  days  after  its  costly  attack,  and  had  re- 
cruited from  the  rest  of  the  regiment.  The 
battalions  marched  out,  the  Third  on  the  night 
of  August  second,  23  kilometers  to  Giriviller, 
the  Second  on  the  night  of  the  third  to  Bad- 
menil,  and  the  First  on  the  night  of  the  fourth 
to  Serainville.  They  were  exhausting  nights 
of  endless  hills,  and  on  one,  almost  at  its  most 
exhausting  stage,  when  sore  feet  had  become 
an  agony  and  the  burden  of  heavy  packs  in- 
tolerable, when  hope  no  longer  suggested  that 
each  hill  might  be  the  last,  nor  that  there  was 
any  last  hill  to  hope  for,  when  sullen  or  curs- 
ing men  began  to  throw  themselves  down  by 
the  roadside — there  came  out  of  the  darkness 
a  voice.  It  was  a  cheerful  voice,  albeit  some- 
what drunken,  and  its  drunken  cheerfulness 
was  as  persistent  as  only  such  can  be.     Its 

63 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

owner  had  in  court-martial  for  persistent 
drunkenness  already  forfeited  his  entire  pay 
for  many  months  both  past  and  future,  and 
yet  he  remained  cheerful. 

"You  can't  beat  Company  ,"  he  an- 
nounced to  the  darkness.  "We've  got  the  of- 
ficers and  we've  got  the  men.  So  what  more 
d'you  want?  What  you  all  groanin'  about? 
Don't  like  soldiering?  Well,  you're  gettin' 
paid  fer  it,  ain't  yer?"  Then,  with  immense 
pride:  "But  I'm  not  gettin'  paid  fer  it.  I'm 
doin'  this  fer  nothin',  I  am — just  fer  nothin'. 
Ev'ry  month  when  I  come  to  the  pay-table 
Captain  calls  me  a  'optimist,'  and  that's  all 
I  get  paid.  Yes,  sir,  doin'  all  this  fer  nothin', 
but  you  don't  hear  me  complainin',  do  yer? 
We've  got  the  officers  and  we've  got — all  right, 
sir,  I  won't  say  another  word;  only  you  can't 

beat  Company ,  can  you,  sir?    We've  got 

the  officers  and  we've  got  the  men,  so  what 
more  do  you  want?"  The  Government  was 
confiscating  all  his  pay,  but  he  was  worth  three 
men's  pay  to  the  Government. 

From  these  stations  the  battalions  moved 
again  to  Remenoville  and  Clezentaine,  and  in 

64 


m 


K    i 


J* 


s 


* 

- 

IflW": 

V 

• 

I 

« 


LORRAINE 

these  areas  remained  till  August  seventh.  Then 
came  a  pleasant  daylight  march  through  the 
sunny  forest  of  Charmes  to  a  bivouac  among 
the  beeches  of  its  southwestern  edge;  and*  on 
the  eighth  the  regiment  entrained  at  Charmes 
for  the  Marne.  The  night  of  the  ninth  was 
spent  in  and  about  La  Ferte  Gaucher,  at  St. 
Simeon,  and  Jouy-sur-Marne,  and  at  noon  of 
the  tenth  the  troops  were  loaded  on  motor 
busses  for  the  north.  It  was  an  interesting 
though  exhausting  twelve-hour  ride  through 
the  wake  of  recent  battles — the  half-ruined 
villages,  the  huddled  rifle-pits,  the  shell  craters, 
graves,  and  the  trampled  wheat-fields  where 
the  charging  feet  had  passed.  Chateau-Thier- 
ry was  already  filling  with  civilians,  patient  old 
men  and  women  returning  to  their  gutted  and 
windowless  homes,  amidst  the  still  persistent 
odor  of  decay. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

The  regiment  arrived  toward  midnight  at 
Fere-en-Tardenois,  groping  its  way  on  foot 
through  the  block  of  traffic  in  the  ruined  town 
to  the  wooded  hill  above,  and  sleeping  broad- 
cast through  the  bushes  where  the  German 
dead  had  not  yet  all  been  gathered.  At  dawn 
of  the  twelfth,  the  Third  Battalion  marched 
out  to  take  position  on  the  as  yet  undefined 
Blue  Line,  or  second  line  of  resistance,  along 
the  front  of  the  Bois  de  Voizelle.  The  great 
French  and  American  counter-attack,  launched 
on  July  eighteenth  along  the  Marne,  had 
slowed  down  to  a  check  along  the  Vesle,  and, 
though  a  bloody  way  was  yet  to  fight  toward 
the  Aisne,  something  approaching  definite  and 
organized  lines  were  being  established.  "I" 
Company  on  the  right  took  position  along  the 
northeast  and  eastern  edge  of  the  woods,  over- 
looking Les  Cruaux ;  "M"  on  the  left  stretched 

66 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

along  the  northern  edge  and  over  the  open 
through  Dole  to  Les  Batis  Ferme,  beyond 
which  was  the  153rd  Brigade.  Battalion  Head- 
quarters with  "K"  and  "L"  lay  in  the  Bois 
de  la  Pisotte. 

"M"  Company  arrived  first  on  its  chosen 
ground  as  tired  and  hungry  as  usual,  and  with 
an  equally  customary  lack  of  prospect  of  any 
cooked  meal  for  the  remainder  of  the  day. 
But  there  was  found  a  battery  of  artillery 
from  another  division  with  headquarters  in 
these  woods,  whose  officer,  with  the  utmost  hos- 
pitality, provided  a  hot  meal  for  the  entire 
company ;  and  an  organization  that  could,  with- 
out the  slightest  warning,  necessity,  or  appar- 
ent difficulty,  off-handedly  feed  two  hundred 
extra  and  hungry  men  suggested  a  condition 
of  ration  supply  incredible  to  the  minds  of  the 
307th  Infantry. 

Save  for  an  unwelcome  fieldful  of  noncom- 
batant,  but  increasingly  unneutral,  horses,  and 
the  fickle  policy  of  their  adherent  millions  of 
flies,  this  situation  was,  for  the  two  forward 
companies,  at  least,  very  delightful.  The  Bois 
de  la  Pisotte  had  been  too  extensively  lived  in 

67 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

and  died  in  by  both  Germans  and  horses,  and 
was  rather  completely  spoiled ;  but  the  Bois  de 
Voizelle  confined  its  relics  for  the  most  part 
to  cooking  utensils,  feather  quilts,  and  steel 
helmets,  with  the  latter  of  which  it  was  almost 
paved,  that  being  apparently  the  article  which 
the  German  always  first  discards  when  hurried. 
The  organization  of  the  ground  for  defence 
formed  a  most  interesting  task,  untrammeled 
by  suggestions  or  interference  from  above,  and 
undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  creative  art — some- 
what leisurely,  first  because  it  was  known  that 
the  ground  would  never  have  to  be  defended, 
and  second  because,  when  the  engineers  found 
time  to  give  it  their  attention,  they  were  cer- 
tain to  alter  all  dispositions.  This  they  eventu- 
ally did,  and,  to  the  staunch  opinion  of  all  com- 
pany officers,  greatly  for  the  worse ;  but,  in  the 
meantime,  enfilading  positions  were  dug  in 
echelon,  covered  approaches  arranged,  inter- 
locking belts  of  fire  sighted,  and  interesting 
chauchat  positions  constructed  in  the  trees  to 
cover  bits  of  dead  ground.  The  company  com- 
mander on  the  left,  having  convinced  himself 
that  the  post  of  danger  lay  in  the  deserted 

68 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

hamlet  of  Dole,  selected  its  prettiest  and  most 
rose-covered  cottage  for  his  home,  furnishing 
it  from  the  wide  antiquity  shop  provided  in 
the  surrounding  orchards. 

The  weather  was  immaculate,  and  had  been 
so  almost  continuously  for  three  months  past; 
and  at  evening  one  would  sit  at  the  edge  of 
the  woods,  looking  out  over  the  broad  valley, 
picking  out  with  glasses  the  new  artillery  po- 
sitions established  on  the  farther  heights,  and 
watching  the  similar  efforts  of  the  German 
shells,  searching  over  the  grassy  slopes  or 
bursting  with  clouds  of  white  smoke  or  pink 
tile-dust  in  the  hillside  village  of  Chery  Char- 
treuve  or  the  farms.  Occasionally  a  weird 
form  of  projectile  would  burst  with  a  mass  of 
black  smoke  high  in  the  air,  to  be  followed  the 
next  instant  by  a  leaping  fountain  of  flames 
from  the  ground  beneath,  and  sometimes  one 
that  gave  vent  to  two,  three,  or  even  four  sep- 
arate explosions  on  the  ground.  Toward  sun- 
down the  hostile  aeroplanes  would  come  over, 
in  twos  or  threes,  for  an  attack  on  the  observa- 
tion balloons,  very  often  successful,  and  would 
turn  back  from  their  flaming  victim  scarcely 

69 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

bothering  to  rise  out  of  range  above  the  drum- 
ming machine-guns;  nor  did  they  ever  seem 
to  pay  the  penalty  for  their  bravado.  At  night- 
fall dim  columns  of  artillery  and  transport 
would  wind  down  the  hill,  with  the  gleam  of 
helmets  moving  ghostlike  through  a  fog  of 
moonlit  dust ;  the  whirr  of  enemy  motors  would 
grow  in  the  darkness  overhead,  the  swish  and 
shock  of  falling  bombs  with  extravagant  pine- 
apple forms  of  fire  springing  from  the  earth; 
or  from  the  misty  valley-bottom,  where  the 
heavy  artillery  was  thundering,  would  come 
the  red  flare  of  explosions,  hoarse  shoutings 
and  the  blowing  of  claxton  gas-alarms.  It  was 
a  wonderful  pageant  of  war,  spread  daily  be- 
fore one's  eyes,  to  be  watched  with  all  the  ap- 
parent safety  of  the  theater-goer. 

Once,  at  noon,  two  American  planes  were 
seen  circling  directly  overhead,  and,  a  thou- 
sand feet  above  them,  three  Germans  against 
the  blue.  A  faint  splutter  of  shots  was  heard, 
but  the  distance  was  far  too  great  for  effective 
fire,  and  the  danger  of  the  Americans  did  not 
seem  imminent  when  they  were  seen  suddenly 
to  crash  together  and  the  wing  of  one  to  shear 

70 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

off  at  the  shoulder.  Down  it  dropped,  dropped, 
dropped,  slowly,  swiftly,  and  then  with  ap- 
palling speed,  gathering  impetus  with  every 
fathom,  nose  first,  in  one  plummeting  chute, 
the  sunshine  gleaming  on  its  painted  sides  and 
the  whirr  of  its  motor  growing  to  a  deafening 
roar,  sliding  like  a  lost  soul  through  thousands 
of  feet  of  air,  a  glistening,  living  thing  headed 
for  utter  destruction ;  and  it  struck,  in  a  pile  of 
crumpled  debris,  at  the  edge  of  the  wood.  The 
other,  reeling  from  the  blow,  came  down  in  a 
staggering  spiral,  almost  under  control,  fouled 
in  the  top  of  some  cottonwoods  below  the  hill, 
and  turned  end-over  on  to  the  ground.  Each 
had  carried  only  a  single  man,  and  Lieuten- 
ants Smythe  and  Wallace  were  buried  side  by 
side  in  the  Bois  de  Voizelle. 

The  pleasant  time  of  sunshine  and  ease  and 
almost  disinterested  observation  was  soon  over, 
the  pleasanter  in  retrospect  for  it  never  oc- 
curred again.  The  Division  had  relieved  both 
the  4th  American  and  the  62nd  French  Divi- 
sions on  the  line,  the  305th  Infantry  taking 
over  at  first  the  entire  divisional  front.  Four 
days  later  the  308th  had  taken  over  from  it 

71 


■WAP- 


Yi/lers- 

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72 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

the  right  half,  as  forming  the  sector  of  the 
154th  Brigade;  the  28th  Division  lay  on  the 
right  in  Fismes.  The  Red  Line,  or  Line  of 
Resistance,  in  this  brigade  sector  followed  ap- 
proximately the  crest  of  a  high  ridge  along  the 
southern  edge  of  the  Bois  de  Cochelet — a  dense 
wood  of  small  birch-trees  springing  from  a 
subsoil  of  chalk.  Beyond  the  northern  foot  of 
the  ridge,  where  the  woods  again  ceased,  the 
land  stretched  in  an  open  grassy  plateau,  dot- 
ted here  and  there  with  small  orchards,  to  the 
steep  and  wooded  declevities  of  the  valley 
proper.  This  was  perhaps  half-a-mile's  width 
of  swampy  bottom-land — meadow,  marsh,  and 
willow-scrub — across  which  the  Vesle,  a  river 
some  thirty  feet  broad  and  six  or  eight  feet 
deep,  looped  back  and  forth.  Beyond  the  val- 
ley to  the  north  the  open  hills  rose  higher  to- 
ward the  Aisne,  and  beyond  it  again  culminat- 
ed in  the  great  commanding  ridge  of  the  Che- 
min  des  Dames,  for  which  the  French  and 
Germans  had  wrestled  for  years.  Everything 
forward,  and  a  good  deal  that  was  back  of  the 
Red  Line  lay  completely  open  to  enemy  ob- 
servation and  fire;  the  position  for  the  support- 

73 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ing  troops  formed  a  practically  insoluble  prob- 
lem; there  could  be  no  reenforcement  nor  sup- 
ply of  the  front  except  at  night,  nor  was  there 
any  natural  cover  from  the  very  searching  ar- 
tillery fire.  This,  several  times  a  day,  would 
comb  out  the  length  of  the  valley's  rim,  where 
was  the  only  woodland ;  and  any  movement  in 
daylight  of  even  one  or  two  men  across  the 
open  table-land  would  draw  a  sniping  fire  of 
77's. 

On  the  night  of  August  eighteenth,  the 
Third  Battalion  moved  forward,  relieving  the 
Third  Battalion  of  the  308th  on  the  Red  Line 
in  the  Bois  de  Cochelet,  and  itself  relieved  by 
the  Second  Battalion  from  Dravegny.  The 
First  Battalion,  which  had  remained  in  the 
Boise  de  Saponay,  above  Fere-en-Tardenois, 
till  the  fourteenth,  was  already  in  the  Bois  de 
la  Pisotte.  Save  once,  and  then  seemingly  by 
chance,  in  the  woods  beside  Baccarat,  no  part 
of  the  Third  Battalion  had  as  yet  been  under 
shell-fire;  and  "K"  and  "L"  Companies,  along 
the  eastern  edge  of  the  Bois  de  Cochelet,  were 
still  comparatively  immune;  but  "M"  and  "I," 
bordering  its  south  on  the  high  ground,  soon 

74 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DlABLE 

came  in  for  their  share.  Batteries  of  six-inch 
howitzers  were  in  position  beneath  the  fringe 
of  pine  trees  under  the  crest  of  the  hill;  and 
huddled  under  their  very  muzzles  the  compa- 
nies dug  into  the  hard  chalk.  One  platoon  of 
"M"  was  at  first  placed  in  the  little  wood  be- 
tween Les  Pres  and  Resson  Farms,  to  main- 
tain liaison  with  the  28th  Division  on  the  right 
— a  liaison  that  was  never  maintained  for  more 
than  twenty-four  consecutive  hours  before  it 
was  found  that  the  latter  had  disappeared,  and 
scouting  parties  would  be  sent  to  search  for 
them.  The  front  edge  of  the  wood  being  lined 
with  75's,  it  was  constantly  searched  by  enemy 
fire,  and  the  platoon  was  moved  to  Resson 
Farm,  whose  medieval  vaults,  when  not  filled 
with  water,  offered  the  only  effective  shelter  of 
the  Red  Line. 

The  woods  along  the  hill  crest  were  inde- 
scribably filthy  with  the  refuse  of  former  oc- 
cupation, and  haunted  by  incalculable  flies. 
The  narrow  rifle-pits  and  half-finished 
trenches  of  the  men,  covered  with  branches 
and  shelter-halves  loaded  with  chalk,  as  pro- 
tection against  shell  fragments,  being  compara- 

75 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

tively  clean  and  cool,  did  not  seem  an  espe- 
cially attractive  resort  for  the  fair-minded  fly, 
particularly  in  view  of  the  lavish  banquet 
spread  broadcast  through  the  woods;  but  the 
flies  felt  differently  about  it  and  were  very 
determined.  A  man  would  crawl  into  his  shel- 
ter, with  a  leafy  branch  in  either  hand,  and, 
lying  on  his  back,  would  begin  threshing  above 
his  face,  gradually  working  down  the  length 
of  his  body.  As  the  aperture  was  approached 
the  flies  would  become  desperate,  charging 
back  at  the  waving  branches,  and  facing  death 
by  scores  rather  than  suffer  ejection.  When 
this  process  had  been  two  or  three  times  re- 
peated a  sufficient  clearance  would  be  effected 
to  enable  the  man  perhaps  to  get  to  sleep  be- 
fore the  place  again  filled  up.  At  night  they 
hung  in  black  masses  over  the  walls  and  roof, 
noisily  propagating  their  species  through  the 
hours  of  darkness,  and  every  crashing  dis- 
charge of  the  155's  overhead  would  bring  down 
an  avalanche  of  chalk  and  flies.  The  yellow 
wasps  were  only  really  bothersome  when  an 
issue  of  jam  arrived,  at  which  times  it  was 

76 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

practically  impossible  to  separate  the  two  long 
enough  to  eat  one  without  the  other. 

Just  why  the  infantry  were  held,  inactive  but 
permanent,  directly  under  the  muzzles  of  the 
guns,  drawing  observation  upon  the  artillery 
while  the  latter  drew  fire  upon  the  infantry, 
was  never  made  evident  to  either  party  of  the 
unwilling  combination.  The  shelling  of  this 
area  was  systematic  but  far  from  severe,  and 
seemed  intended  mostly  for  the  batteries.  Had 
it  been  otherwise,  congested  as  the  men  were 
in  their  improvised  shelters,  the  losses  might 
have  been  appalling.  It  consisted  for  the  great- 
er part  of  three-inch  H.  E.  (high  explosive), 
much  of  it  with  overhead  bursts,  and  of  sneez- 
ing gas.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to  keep 
the  men  under  cover  during  daylight,  but  the 
ration  details,  carrying  the  two  meals  a  day 
from  the  company  kitchens  at  Chery-Char- 
treuve,  were  a  constant  source  of  danger.  The 
platoon  at  Resson  Farm,  alone,  however,  was 
under  observation  by  balloons.  A  line  of 
trenches  had  been  laid  out  on  the  lower  ground 
of  the  Bois  de  Mont  St.  Martin,  where  the 
thick  trees  seemed  to  offer  adequate  protec- 

77 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

tion  from  observation,  and  work  upon  them 
was  begun  by  details  from  the  four  companies. 
Three  German  planes  were  seen  through  the 
leaves  hovering  high  overhead  and  soon  the 
shells  began  ranging  in.  So  accurate  was  the 
fire  and  efficient  the  observation  that,  among 
the  first  half-dozen  shells,  one  broke  on  the  lip 
of  the  trench,  wounding  four  men,  who  lay 
prone  along  its  bottom.  Chery-Chartreuve,  a 
mile  to  the  southwest,  where  the  company 
kitchens  were  located,  concealing  their  smoke 
in  empty  barns,  came  in  for  its  daily  bombard- 
ment. A  fair  description  of  the  place  may  be 
quoted  from  a  letter  written  at  the  time: 

"There  had  been  shelling  as  usual  in  Chery 
that  morning,  and  the  outhouse  next  to  our 
company  kitchen,  where  some  of  the  ration- 
detail  were  sleeping,  had  been  blown  to  pieces. 
A  runner  came  up  to  get  replacements  for  the 
detail,  and  reported  that  two  of  the  men  had 
been  hurt  and  a  third  had  disappeared;  the 
roof  had  fallen  in,  and,  though  he  seemed  to 
feel  sure  that  the  missing  man  was  not  under 
it,  he  did  not  speak  very  convincingly  about  it, 
so  I  went  down  to  see  what  I  could  find.    It 

78 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

was  a  day  of  breathless  heat,  and  the  white 
road  was  padded  with  dust.  I  passed  a  steep 
hillslope  of  empty  funk-holes,  looking  like  a 
great  rabbit-warren,  or  a  village  of  cliff-dwell- 
ers, and  in  spite  of  the  two  robust-looking 
horses  at  its  bottom,  each  with  two  legs  point- 
ing straight  to  the  sky,  it  struck  me  as  a  very 
preferable  location  for  our  men.  The  road- 
side was  littered  with  chauchat-magazines,  car- 
riers, and  cartridge-belts,  half  hidden  in  the 
dust.  The  village  lay  lifeless  beneath  the  sun, 
a  thin  white  fog  of  dust  from  some  recent  shell- 
ing hanging  above  it,  and  the  taint  of  gas  in 
the  air.  In  the  ruined  outhouse  was  a  side- 
car, rather  badly  damaged,  beneath  which  the 
missing  man,  an  Italian,  was  supposed  to  have 
been  sleeping — though  I  couldn't  see  why  he 
had  selected  it.  It  was  a  relief  that  the  debris 
of  the  tile  roof  did  not  look  enough  to  conceal 
a  man.  To  make  sure,  however,  we  lifted  off 
such  beams  as  there  were,  but  without  raising 
anything  beyond  a  cloud  of  tile-dust  mixed 
with  mustard-gas. 

"There  didn't  seem  to  be  anywhere  else  to 
look  for  him,  since  the  surgeon  who  had  dressed 
the  other  two  knew  nothing  of  him,  and  I  con- 
cluded that  eventually  he  would  be,  as  event- 
ually he  was,  reported  from  hospital  through 

79 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

some  unexpected  channel;  but  now  as  I  stood 
looking  up  the  blistering  way  to  our  hilltop 
that  I  had  to  travel,  my  eye  was  caught  at  the 
turn  of  the  road  by  a  long,  roofed,  stone- 
flagged  washing-place,  such  as  the  French 
blanchisseuses  use  all  over  the  land.  In  a  mo- 
ment I  was  beside  it,  and  in  another  moment 
I  was  in  it.  It  was  full  to  the  brim  with  clear 
cold  water,  four  feet  deep  in  the  middle  and 
twenty  feet  long,  and  the  sheer  joy  of  that 
swim  I  shall  never  forget.  I  hadn't  seen  so 
much  water  together  in  one  place  since  I  left 
the  ocean.  After  that  the  mess-sergeant 
cooked  me  a  meal  with  a  lot  of  delicious  fresh 
vegetables  he  had  gotten  from  somewhere,  and 
I  went  back  up  what  we  called  Shrapnel  Hill 
with  the  feeling  of  having  spent  a  week-end  at 
the  seashore." 


Les  Pres  Farm,  where  the  first-aid  station 
was  established  close  under  the  hill,  was  sub- 
jected to  a  constant  and  accurate  fire,  so  that 
it  became  increasingly  a  matter  of  wonder  that 
the  place  held  together.  Almost  every  day  a 
few  were  wounded,  the  sight  of  the  stretcher- 
bearers  carrying  their  burdens  down  the  slope 
becoming  too  familiar  to  cause  any  comment 

80 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

beyond  a  question  as  to  the  man's  company. 
Dysentery  too  became  everywhere  prevalent. 
Water  was  scarce,  and  the  days  were  long  and 
irksome  with  the  glare  of  heat  from  the  sun- 
scorched  chalk.  But  at  night  a  glamor  spread 
over  the  mist-filled  valley,  with  its  stabbing 
white  flashes  of  artillery  and  red  flare  of  ex- 
plosions. Once  an  ammunition  dump  of  75's 
was  fired  in  the  open,  and  continued  all  through 
the  night,  sending  its  empty  shell-cases  wail- 
ing about  like  banshees  through  the  darkness. 
Once,  on  a  still  night  of  midsummer  moon- 
shine there  passed  a  strange  flight  of  projec- 
tiles, like  a  flock  of  migrating  birds,  high,  high 
up  in  the  moonlit  silence,  coming  from  one 
knew  not  where,  and  traveling  with  a  drowsy 
note  and  on  even  keel  to  some  remote  target 
far  in  the  inaudible  distance. 

On  the  night  of  August  twenty-fifth,  the 
Second  Battalion,  leap-frogging  the  Third, 
took  over  the  front  line  from  the  308th.  The 
next  day  a  battalion  attack  was  ordered  for 
dawn  of  the  twenty-seventh.  The  front  of  the 
regimental  sector  at  this  time  ran  along  the 
south  bank  of  the  Vesle  through  the  woods  due 

81 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

north  of  Villesavoye,  crossed  the  river  on  a 
footbridge  and  followed  north  along  the  west 
edge  of  the  woods  to  the  railroad,  passed  under 
the  tracks  through  an  open  culvert,  the  track 
itself  being  swept  by  enemy  enfilade  fire  of 
machine-guns,  and  occupied  the  southwest  cor- 
ner of  the  woods  beyond.  A  switch  line  ran 
east  along  the  track,  and,  though  not  continu- 
ously, south  along  the  eastern  edge  of  the  wood 
to  the  Vesle  once  more.  Another  and  isolated 
position  was  held  a  kilometer  to  the  east  at  the 
Tannerie.  Battalion  Headquarters  as  orig- 
inally taken  over  from  the  308th  was  in  a  dug- 
out on  the  steep  wooded  slope  southwest  of 
Villesavoye,  but,  on  account  of  the  continuous 
shelling  of  this  area,  was  changed  to  a  large 
cave  on  the  high  ground  south  of  the  Tannerie. 
The  dressing  station  was  in  another  cave  on  a 
bluff  south  of  Villesavoye,  readily  distin- 
guished in  the  distance  by  the  continuous  burst- 
ing of  shells  at  its  mouth.  Very  little  inter- 
communication was  possible  between  the  vari- 
ous portions  of  the  line,  and  this  only  by 
devious  routes.  Both  flanks  were  very  open 
and  ill-defined,  and  much  of  the  ground  was 

82 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

debatable.  Maps  of  the  region  were  scarce, 
were  all  of  very  small  scale,  and  of  a  particu- 
larly perishable  quality  of  paper.  There  were 
some,  but  not  all,  made  with  two  systems  of 
superimposed  non-parallel  coordinate  lines — 
all  leading  to  very  possible  errors  in  the  locat- 
ing of  positions.  An  incident  in  this  connec- 
tion is  worth  mentioning  wrhen  an  officer  of  the 
Third  Battalion,  on  August  twenty-fourth, 
previous  to  the  receipt  of  the  order  for  the 
leap-frogging  of  that  battalion  by  the  Second, 
going  forward  to  reconnoitre  the  position  of 
the  right  forward  company,  was  provided  with 
a  guide  supposed,  more  than  any  other,  to  be 
familiar  with  that  ground.  The  guide  con- 
ducted the  officer  in  broad  daylight  into  No 
Man's  Land  and  onto  the  muzzles  of  a  Ger- 
man machine-gun  nest  beneath  the  concrete 
signal-house,  having  previously  beenrestrained, 
only  by  the  growing  pessimism  of  the  officer, 
from  scaling  the  railroad  embankment  at  a 
point  where  its  opposite  side  was  afterwards 
found  to  be  lined  with  enemy  rifle-pits.  In 
justice  be  it  said,  however — for  the  man  was 
as  brave  a  soldier  as  he  was  inefficient  a  guide 

83 


I    o 


84 


85 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

be  within  the  first  twenty-four  hours  of  occupa- 
tion of  the  line,  undoubtedly  hazardous.  Major 
Jay,  it  should  be  said,  threw  the  whole  weight 
of  his  influence  toward  obtaining  at  least  a 
postponement — but  other  counsels  prevailed. 

A  paragraph  of  the  official  report  made  after 
the  attack  may  be  quoted  at  length : 

"At  a  conference  held  at  the  forward  bat- 
talion P.  C.  (Poste  de  Commande)  during  the 
afternoon,  Major  Jay,  commanding  the  Sec- 
ond Battalion,  stated  that  he  did  not  feel  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  reconnoitre  and  pre- 
pare properly  to  make  the  attack  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  twenty-seventh,  as  had  been  sug- 
gested, and  requested  that  the  hour  be  delayed 
until  the  morning  of  the  twenty-eighth.  An 
additional  reason  for  this  request  was  the  fact 
that  the  supporting  artillery  of  this  Regiment 
was  assisting  an  operation  of  the  153rd  Bri- 
gade on  the  night  of  26th-27th  August  and 
would  not  be  available  to  support  an  operation 
in  our  sector.  It  was  determined,  however, 
that  the  attack  would  be  made  on  the  morning 
of  the  twenty-seventh,  and  Lieutenant- Colonel 
Benjamin,  commanding  the  Regiment,  re- 
ceived instructions,  copies   of  which  are  at- 

88 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

tached  hereto,  to  that  effect.    He  immediately 
notified  Major  Jay." 

A  prisoner  captured  that  day  by  the  112th 
Infantry  at  Fismes  brought  word  that  a  Ger- 
man general  attack  along  the  sector  was  pre- 
paring for  the  morning  of  the  twenty-seventh 
— which  promised  ill  for  the  reception  of  the 
Second  Battalion.  An  officer  of  "F"  Com- 
pany went  out  to  reconnoitre  the  ground  for  a 
possible  attack  upon  the  Chateau  from  the 
Tannerie  on  the  east.  He  was  injured  by  a 
shell,  and  a  second  officer  volunteered  for  the 
task.  But  from  the  east  the  only  way  lay  over 
the  open  marsh  where  "C"  Company  of  the 
308th  had  been  cut  to  pieces  in  a  similar  and 
fruitless  attempt,  and  it  was  determined  to  at- 
tack from  the  west. 

At  about  2  A.  M.  of  the  twenty-seventh  the 
Major  held  a  conference  in  a  little  dugout  by 
the  railroad  culvert,  where  their  duties  were  as- 
signed to  the  four  company  commanders.  "H," 
lying  north  of  the  tracks,  was  to  attack  the 
Chateau,  "E"  to  attack  along  the  tracks  to  the 
railroad  crossing,  "F"  to  move  in  support,  and 

89 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

"G"  to  guard  the  left  from  counter-attack. 
Zero  hour  was  set  for  4:15  A.  M. 

It  was  still  dark  when  they  started,  and  low 
over  Bazoches  to  westward  hung  the  thread  of 
a  dying  moon,  while  beneath  it  grew  the  dull 
roar  of  the  attack  of  the  153rd  Brigade.  Shells 
were  passing  overhead,  but  all  toward  Ba- 
zoches. Through  dense  swamp  the  leading 
platoons  moved  forward  in  column,  and  at  the 
edge  of  the  open  meadow  deployed  in  line. 
Less  than  a  hundred  yards  of  wet  grass  in  the 
gray  of  morning,  and  beyond  it  the  thicker 
darkness  of  unknown  woods.  A  Very  light  shot 
up  on  the  left,  calling  for  such  artillery  as  was 
to  aid.  An  enemy  smoke  bomb  exploded  on 
the  tracks  in  front,  blotting  out  whatever  move- 
ment of  troops  occurred  behind,  and  then  the 
machine  guns  opened.  From  the  Chateau  to 
the  river  the  woods  seemed  alive  with  them,  for 
it  was  not  for  nothing  that  the  enemy  had  pre- 
pared their  attack  upon  that  very  ground  at 
the  same  hour,  and  upon  a  scale  intended  to 
insure  success.  A  regiment  was  massed  upon 
that  slope  of  woods,  and  with  it  two  extra  ma- 
chine gun  companies — perhaps  fifty  guns  in  all 

90 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

— and  against  them  "H"  and  "E*  Companies 
advanced  to  the  attack.  They  did  not  know 
the  odds  against  them — it  was  not  known  until 
after  the  war — they  only  knew  that  they  were 
struck  by  such  a  blast  of  fire  as  made  life  im- 
possible. That  part  of  "H"  which  attempted 
the  open  meadow  was  swept  away,  while  the 
rest,  gaining  only  a  few  rods  through  the  neck 
of  woods,  there  clung  under  a  steady  hail  of 
bullets. 

"E"  Company,  on  the  right,  not  facing  the 
main  position,  at  first  did  better.  They  crossed 
the  first  stretch  of  meadow  to  the  line  of  trees 
and  flung  one  platoon  across  the  tracks,  then, 
astride  the  tracks,  they  crossed  the  second 
meadow.  Their  leading  platoons  disappeared 
in  the  woods  beyond,  and  for  a  while  the  rest 
waited.  The  fire  was  appalling,  crossing  from 
the  hill  to  the  river  and  sweeping  down  the 
tracks.  After  a  little  the  platoon  to  the  south, 
losing  direction  in  the  thick  swamp,  reap- 
peared, and,  to  give  it  time  to  reform,  its  sup- 
port platoon  attacked  through  it.  Nothing 
was  heard  of  that  to  the  north  under  Lieuten- 
ant O'Brien,  and  of  runners  sent  to  that  cor- 

91 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ner  of  woods  those  who  returned  reported  that 
there  was  nothing  there  but  German  machine 
guns.  It  was  gone,  and  not  a  man  of  it  came 
back.  Captain  Adams  of  "E"  and  Lieutenant 
Scudder,  starting  in  search  of  it,  fell  side  by 
side,  each  shot  through  the  neck  as  they  lifted 
their  heads  above  the  railroad  embankment. 
Major  Jay,  a  hundred  yards  down  the  track, 
dropped  with  a  broken  arm,  and,  after  a  brave 
effort  to  retain  his  command,  was  carried  back. 
Captain  Davis  of  "F"  then  took  command,  but 
no  one  could  judge  what  was  taking  place  in 
that  inferno  of  noise  in  front.  Corporal  Hal- 
berstadt  undertook  to  find  Captain  Adams,  and 
did  so,  reporting  to  him  when  both  were  pris- 
oners in  the  German  lines.  There  was  fire 
from  the  right  and  the  word  spread  that  it  was 
chauchat  fire — that  part  of  "E's"  right  pla- 
toon which  had  lost  direction  was  shooting  on 
them,  and,  calling  that  he  was  going  to  find  out, 
Lieutenant  Reed,  the  Battalion  Adjutant, 
plunged  into  the  woods  there.  He  was  not  seen 
again  except  by  one  man,  who  reported  that 
he  had  found  him  shot  through  both  legs,  and 
that  when  he  had  tried  to  help  him  back  the 

92 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

lieutenant  had  told  him  to  bring  back  the  mes- 
sage instead — that  it  was  enemy  fire.  Then 
"H"  sent  word  that  they  could  not  hold  their 
slender  gains  without  reenforcement,  and,  al- 
most as  the  reinforcements  from  "F"  started 
out,  came  a  second  message  that  "H"  had  with- 
drawn. 

That  finished  it,  for  no  further  effort  was 
possible  for  the  troops  at  hand.  Another  part 
of  "F"  had  already  been  sent  to  clear  the 
woods  east  along  the  river,  and  the  danger  of 
a  counter-stroke  from  the  west  was  too  great 
to  allow  the  withdrawal  of  "G"  from  their  po- 
sition. South  of  the  tracks  the  line  had  been 
advanced  to  the  strip  of  trees  across  the  first 
meadow,  but  on  the  north  the  former  posi- 
tions were  resumed.  Long  afterward  a  few  of 
the  dead  were  found  among  the  fallen  poplars 
at  the  base  of  the  Chateau  hill,  and  some  even 
near  the  far  eastern  edge  of  the  woods,  but  for 
the  most  part  the  battleground  was  left  in  the 
hands  of  an  enemy  who  glean  it  well. 

The  price  was  heavy — of  officers,  three 
wounded  and  four  missing,  of  whom  only  one, 
Captain  Adams,  returned  alive  after  the  arm- 

93 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

istice,  and  of  men,  sixteen  killed,  eighty-four 
wounded  and  forty  missing — one  hundred  and 
forty  enlisted  men,  ten  from  Battalion  head- 
quarters, eleven  from  "F,"  twenty-one  from 
"G,"  thirty-five  from  "E,"  and  sixty-three 
from  "H."  Throughout  the  action,  lasting 
some  two  hours,  the  heavy  artillery  had  played 
upon  the  support  positions  south  of  the  river 
— causing  "G"  its  losses,  but  overshooting  the 
rest  of  the  Battalion. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  enemy,  taking  the 
attack  in  conjunction  with  that,  more  costly 
and  scarcely  more  successful,  of  the  153rd 
Brigade  upon  Bazoches,  had  believed  it  to  be 
much  stronger  than  in  fact  it  was,  and  their 
artillery  sought  only  to  break  up  the  reserves, 
of  which,  fortunately  or  unfortunately,  there 
were  none  present.  Perhaps  for  the  same  rea- 
son no  counter-attack  was  launched. 

The  attack  of  the  Second  Battalion  had 
failed,  in  that  neither  of  its  two  objectives  were 
for  a  moment  seriously  threatened;  and  yet, 
with  the  clearer  knowledge  we  now  have  of  that 
against  which  the  attack  was  launched,  it  may 
be  that  its  bloody  failure  should  be  reckoned 

94 


CONCRETE  SIGNAL-HOUSE  ON  THE  RAILROAD  TRANSFORMED  INTO  A  GER- 
MAN' PILL-BOX,  SEEN  FROM  ITS  BEAB.  THE  MACHINE-GUN  IV  ITS 
BASEMENT  CUT  A  SWATHE  THBOUGH  THE  ATTACK  OF  THE  ^M)  BAT- 
TALION 


TIN.  CHATEAU  DC  DIXBLE,  LOOKING  ACROSS  A  SIDK  BRANCH  OF  THE  \ 


THE  CHATEAU  DU  DIABLE 

success — a  distant  and  unconscious  parallel  to 
the  "Revenge."  For  the  devotion  of  two  com- 
panies to  their  appointed  task  held  immobile 
before  them  a  force  perhaps  six  or  eight  times 
their  number  that  was  intended  to  attack; 
and  the  blow  they  struck  against  it,  however 
impotent  to  achieve  their  purpose,  served  at 
least  to  prevent  what  might  have  been  a  dis- 
aster to  the  battalion  and  to  the  line.  There 
can  be  no  estimate  of  the  enemy  loss,  though 
to  have  so  completely  paralyzed  their  initiative, 
it  must  have  been  heavy. 

A  feature  of  the  enemy  organization,  learned 
through  prisoners  of  either  side,  may  here  be 
mentioned  as  of  interest;  namely,  that  each 
German  infantry  company  carried  with  it  nor- 
mally a  section  of  heavy  machine  guns,  com- 
posed originally  of  eight  guns,  but  at  this  time 
reduced  to  four — whereas  the  American  infan- 
try company,  unless  by  special  detail,  had 
none;  and  that  the  German  company  carried 
also  a  section,  or  even  platoon,  solely  for  the 
evacuation  of  the  dead  and  wounded  of  both 
sides  during  an  action.  These  men  were  seen 
going  about  unarmed  upon  their  task  while  the 

95 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

attack  was  at  its  height,  and  their  activity  will 
largely  account  for  the  constant  feeling  in  the 
American  lines  that  little  or  no  losses  were  be- 
ing inflicted  upon  the  enemy.  Night  of  Au- 
gust twenty-seventh  saw  the  regimental  sector 
practically  unchanged,  while  on  their  left  the 
153rd  Brigade  had  taken  and  at  terrific  cost 
relost  Bazoches,  and  on  their  right  the  28th  Di- 
vision had  been  driven  from  their  scanty  foot- 
ing in  Fismette. 


CHAPTER  V 

ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

On  the  night  of  August  twenty-eighth  the 
Third  Battalion  relieved  the  Second  Battalion 
on  the  front  line,  the  latter  drawing  back  to  the 
Bois  de  la  Pisotte  and  the  next  night  to  Sergy. 
The  Third  Battalion  had  by  now  spent  ten 
days  on  the  Red  Line — the  days  spent  largely 
in  trench  digging  and  many  of  the  nights  in 
carrying  ammunition  from  Villesavoye  to  the 
forward  battalions  of  the  brigade.  It  was  not 
a  period  of  much  physical  exhaustion,  but  the 
strength  of  the  men  was  sapped  with  dysentery, 
and  the  shell-fire  on  the  two  rear  companies 
had  been  very  constant.  In  "M"  Company, 
at  least,  every  officer  but  one  was  already  a 
casualty,  and  that  remaining  lieutenant  was 
killed  by  a  direct  hit  of  a  shell  on  their  first  day 
in  the  forward  position.  Happily  two  of  the 
others  were  able  at  the  same  time  to  return  to 

97 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

duty,  but  at  this  unfortunate  juncture  the  com- 
panies were  required  to  send  selected  officers 
and  N.  C.  O.'s  away  to  school. 

The  tenure  of  the  line  by  the  Third  Bat- 
talion was  not  marked  by  any  especial  activity, 
though  the  losses  from  artillery  and  machine- 
gun  fire  were  very  constant,  and  the  life — ly- 
ing all  day  in  the  shallow  rifle-pits,  eating  spar- 
ingly of  such  food  as  they  had  brought  with 
them,  and  drinking  the  water  of  the  polluted 
river — was  wearing  in  the  extreme.  "M"  held 
in  the  woods  beyond  the  railroad,  "L"  on  the 
right  between  the  railroad  and  the  river,  "K" 
south  of  the  river,  and  "I"  at  the  Tannerie,  in 
the  narrow  strip  between  river  and  highway, 
and,  as  battalion  reserve,  on  the  high  ground 
to  the  south.  Battalion  Headquarters'  cave 
was  a  vast  affair  of  flickering  candles  and  dim 
recesses,  paved  with  equipment  and  sleeping 
soldiers,  over  which  one  entering  picked  his 
tortuous  way.  A  general  attack  similar  to  that 
made  by  the  Second  Battalion  was  ordered  for 
the  Third,  but  was  countermanded  at  the  time 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Houghton  assumed  com- 
mand of  the  regiment. 

98 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

One  short  and  uncontested  advance  was, 
however,  made  on  the  left,  when,  before  dawn 
of  the  thirty-first,  two  platoons  of  "I"  Com- 
pany crept  forward  across  the  river  and 
through  the  swamp  and  willow-scrub  to  the 
railroad-cut  north  of  the  Grand  Savar.  This 
advance,  which  was  the  cause  of  some  newspa- 
per comment  at  the  time,  while  not  compli- 
cated, was  well  handled;  the  men  dug  in  very 
quickly  on  their  new  line,  and  no  resistance  was 
encountered.  The  only  resultant  losses  were 
from  causes  quite  unexpected.  The  lieutenant 
in  charge  had  been  directed,  as  soon  as  his  ob- 
jective had  been  reached,  to  send  up  a  six-star 
rocket  in  order  to  bring  up  the  machine  guns 
on  his  left, — a  signal  which,  at  about  4  A.  M., 
brought  a  very  prompt  response  from  the  en- 
emy artillery,  though  widely  overshooting  their 
position.  But  the  return  fire  from  the  support- 
ing artillery  fell  as  much  short,  deluging  the 
woods  where  "M"  Company  held  across  the 
railroad,  and  causing  them  four  casualties. 
About  5  P.  M.  two  enemy  planes  circled  very 
low  above  the  new  position  occupied  by  "I" 
Company;  but  the  men  lay  close,  and  there 

99 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

seemed  no  immediate  sequel  except,  after  the 
departure  of  the  planes,  a  brief  bombardment 
by  friendly  artillery  with  overhead  H.  E.  That 
night  the  Third  Battalion  was  relieved  by  the 
First,  some  marching  out  to  the  Bois  de  la 
Pisotte  and  thence,  after  a  brief  rest,  to  Sergy, 
seven  kilometers  to  the  south,  others  being  car- 
ried there  by  trucks  from  Chery-Chartreuve 
and  arriving  toward  midnight  of  September 
first. 

The  First  Battalion  had  taken  over  the  Blue 
Line  on  August  twenty-second,  and  the  Red 
Line  on  the  night  of  the  twenty-fifth,  lying 
to  the  left  of  the  Third  Battalion  on  either 
side  of  the  St.  Thibaut-Chery-Chartreuve 
road.  This  position  had  been  taken  up  under 
an  interdiction  fire  from  enemy  artillery — a 
statement  which  inadequately  describes  the 
confusion  of  tired  men  stumbling  about  amidst 
drenching  rain,  through  the  thick  darkness  and 
underbrush  of  unfamiliar  slopes,  and  groping 
under  artillery  fire  for  the  uncertain  protection 
of  rifle-pits.  Two  were  killed  and  four  wound- 
ed at  this  time.  On  the  front  line  "A"  Com- 
pany took  over  in  the  woods  north  of  the  rail- 

100 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

road,  "B"  immediately  south  of  the  tracks,  and 
"C"  along  the  south  bank  of  the  river.  *  A  com-, 
bat  group  between  the  Tannerie  and*.  Fisjnes 
maintained  liaison  with  the  2 8th  Division  on  the 
right,  but  in  spite  of  the  extension  of  the  line 
for  two  hundred  yards  to  the  left  along  the 
railroad,  effected  by  the  Third  Battalion,  no 
liaison  had  been  established  with  the  153rd 
Brigade,  and  the  position  had  there  been  or- 
ganized by  Captain  Hubbell  of  the  Machine- 
Gun  Company  as  a  defensive  flank.  Against 
this  flank  an  attack  was  launched  early  on  the 
night  of  September  first. 

The  afternoon  and  evening  had  been  un- 
usually quiet  until,  at  about  10  P.  M.,  the  en- 
emy opened  with  77's  on  the  "B"  Company  po- 
sitions along  the  railroad,  the  fire  quickly  in- 
creasing into  a  heavy  barrage.  This  lasted 
for  some  twenty  minutes,  mixed  with  machine- 
gun  fire;  an  American  counter-barrage  was 
laid  down  in  front  of  the  position  for  about 
fifteen  minutes ;  then  the  enemy  attacked  from 
the  northwest  with  light  and  heavy  machine- 
guns,  rifle-  and  hand-grenades.  "B"  Company 
and    the    machine-gun    crews,    holding    their 

101 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ground,  fired  out  into  the  darkness  with  every 
weapon  at  hand.  It  seems  improbable  that 
targets  wqreat  any  time  visible  on  either  side, 
and  after  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the  enemy  fire 
slackened  and  finally  ceased.  As  in  almost  all 
such  affairs,  no  idea  could  be  formed  of  the 
enemy  loss  owing  to  their  very  careful  gather- 
ing of  all  casualties ;  none  actually  reached  the 
American  line,  which  remained  intact  through- 
out. "B"  Company's  loss  was  only  of  a  single 
casualty  from  a  rifle-grenade. 

At  dawn  of  the  second  the  captain  of  "A" 
Company,  who  had  been  wandering  dazedly 
about  in  the  woods  half  the  night  after  being 
knocked  unconscious  by  a  shell,  sent  out  a  pa- 
trol from  the  north  of  his  position  toward  the 
Chateau  du  Diable;  but  it  was  met  by  imme- 
diate machine-gun  fire  from  the  woods  strong- 
ly held  to  the  south  of  the  Chateau,  and  retired 
with  the  loss  of  one  man.  A  platoon  of  "A," 
south  of  the  tracks,  was  ordered  to  seize  and 
occupy  the  point  of  woods  between  the  north 
and  south  bend  of  the  river  and  the  railroad. 
Filtering  in  by  groups,  they  succeeded  in  es- 
tablishing themselves  here  for  a  while,  and  at- 

102 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

tempted  to  surround  the  first  machine-gun  po- 
sition upon  which  they  stumbled;  but  other 
guns  echeloned  to  the  rear,  firing  from  conceal- 
ment upon  a  position  well  known  to  them,  to- 
gether with  rifle-fire  from  across  the  river, 
drove  back  the  platoon  to  its  original  location 
with  a  loss  of  five  casualties.  This  activity  on 
the  part  of  "A"  Company  seemed  to  persuade 
the  enemy  that  a  general  attack  was  pending, 
for  an  intense  artillery  fire  was  laid  down  on 
that  company's  position,  killing  five  and 
wounding  a  dozen,  beside  a  few  further  cas- 
ualties in  "B"  and  "C." 

The  French  attacks  around  Soissons  were 
by  now  bringing  pressure  on  the  enemy's  right 
flank,  so  that  he  gave  indications  of  a  with- 
drawal on  the  regimental  front.  At  dawn  of 
September  fourth,  after  a  brief  artillery  prep- 
aration, "A"  and  "C"  Companies,  under  com- 
mand of  Captain  Blagden,  struck  southeast 
from  the  north  of  their  position  and  northeast 
from  the  river,  meeting  along  the  railroad  to 
the  south  of  the  Chateau.  There  was  no  op- 
position; the  woods  where  "H"  and  "E"  had 
suffered  so  fearfully  were  empty  save  for  their 

103 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

unburied  dead,  and  a  scattered  few  of  the  en- 
emy outposts  whose  only  thought  was  of  es- 
cape. Pushing  up  the  steep  slope  they  found 
the  Chateau  du  Diable,  with  broken  windows 
and  hanging  doors,  also  deserted.  It  was  a  dis- 
appointing place,  whose  grim  name  and  brood- 
ing presence,  f  ortressed  by  trees,  so  long  domi- 
nating the  front,  would  have  suggested  some 
gloomy  relic  of  ancient  days;  but  it  appeared 
as  a  modern  and  bizarre  villa  of  brick  and 
wood,  surrounded  by  paths  of  oleander.  The 
companies  crossed  the  Rouen-Reims  highroad, 
under  a  slight  enfilading  fire,  and,  still  unop- 
posed, climbed  the  slopes  of  the  Montagne  de 
Perles  to  the  north,  where  they  dug  in  below 
the  crest. 

The  Second  Battalion  in  the  meantime,  after 
six  days  in  the  rearward  area  at  Sergy  and 
the  Blue  Line,  were  now  advancing  to  the  right 
front  along  the  Mont  St.  Martin-Fismes  road, 
reaching  the  latter  place  about  dusk,  and  tak- 
ing up  a  temporary  position  in  the  ruined  cel- 
lars of  that  most  desolate  town.  "E"  and  "H" 
Companies,  coming  in  from  the  left,  ran  the 
gauntlet  of  some  artillery  fire,  but  without  cas- 

104 


SIDE  STREET  IN   FISMES — WATER  BACKING  UP  FROM  THE  CHOKED  RIVER 
INTO  THE  TOWN 


i  in.  river  fiiont  \T  riftMCS,  LOOKING  a<  ROBS  mi   Vi  BLE  ROM  tVSMl  I  I  E 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

ualties.  Captain  Blagden  here  joined  them 
with  orders  to  take  command  of  the  battalion 
and  push  forward  through  Fismette  to  the 
north. 

The  troops  were  massed  in  the  town,  whose 
streets  were  blocked  with  tumbled  debris  and 
wire,  and  where  every  courtyard  held  its  un- 
buried  dead.  The  bridge  across  the  river  was 
reported  to  have  been  restored  by  the  Engi- 
neers. At  8  P.  M.  the  column  started,  groping 
its  way  forward  to  the  river;  the  ruins  of  the 
bridge  were  found  unrestored,  and  at  the  same 
time  enemy  artillery  opened  fire  on  the  road. 
In  complete  darkness  and  under  shell-fire  a 
plank  bridge  was  improvised  among  the  re- 
mains of  the  former  structure,  and  the  battal- 
ion began  crossing  in  single  file.  One  shell 
struck  the  bridge  directly;  another,  of  large 
caliber,  wiped  out  almost  the  entire  headquar- 
ters personnel,  together  with  two  machine-gun 
officers,  Captain  Blagden  practically  alone  re- 
maining unhurt.  Fourteen  were  killed  and  ten 
wounded  by  this  single  explosion,  and  four  of 
the  casualties  were  officers.  Beyond  the  river 
the  road  to  Fismette  was  blocked  with  piled 

105 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

coils  of  wire ;  and  still  the  shells  kept  searching 
through  the  darkness  over  that  desperately 
slow  advance.  At  last,  winning  free  of  the 
town,  the  battalion  dug  in  on  the  side  of  the 
sunken  road  to  its  north. 

At  7  A.  M.  of  September  5th,  with  a  new 
battalion  headquarters  organized,  the  advance 
was  resumed, — "G,"  which  the  night  before 
had  lost  direction  and  advanced  almost  to 
Blanzy-les-Fismes  before  returning  to  the  Bat- 
talion, and  "H"  on  the  left,  "F"  and  "E"  on 
the  right.  As  the  leading  squad-columns 
reached  the  high  ground  by  the  east  and  west 
narrow-gauge  line,  they  were  met  by  machine- 
gun  fire  from  either  flank,  and,  deploying,  at- 
tempted to  advance  by  squad  rushes.  But  the 
fire,  increasing  in  intensity  from  the  near  brink 
of  the  Ravin  Marion,  was  mixed  now  with  that 
of  heavy  machine-guns  from  the  Petite  Mon- 
tagne,  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  north,  and  final- 
ly with  an  artillery  barrage  upon  the  skirmish 
line.  The  supporting  platoons  attempted  to 
flank  out  the  nearer  positions,  but  could  not 
advance  the  line,  on  which  the  28th  Division 
was  also  found  to  be  held  up  on  the  right; 

106 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

every  move  brought  a  new  burst  of  artillery 
fire,  for  the  whole  position  was  under  direct 
observation  from  the  north,  and  with  already 
heavy  losses  the  battalion  dug  in  along  the 
embankment  of  the  narrow-gauge  line.  In 
this  position  at  noon  the  battalion  was  advised 
that  a  rolling  barrage  would  be  laid  down 
along  their  front  behind  which  they  were  di- 
rected to  advance ;  but  as  the  afternoon  waned, 
bringing  no  barrage,  a  runner  was  sent  back 
for  confirmation  of  the  order.  Then  at  4:30 
came  word  that  the  barrage  had  passed  at  10 
A.  M.  and  that  the  advance  must  begin  at 
once.  It  was  attempted,  but  at  once  hurled 
back  by  artillery  fire. 

Liaison  was  very  faulty,  and  there  appears 
at  this  time,  and  for  some  days  thereafter,  to 
have  been  a  radical  misconception  as  to  the  po- 
sition of  the  28th  Division  on  the  right.  The 
Second  Battalion  was  in  touch  with  its  left 
midway  between  Baslieux  and  Glennes,  yet 
on  the  morning  of  this  day  a  message  was  writ- 
ten stating  that:  "The  28th  report  their  left 
at  La  Bossette  (a  kilometer  north  of  Glennes) 

and  desire  your  assistance  in  taking  La  Pe- 

107 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

tite  Montagne.  You  will  cooperate  to  the  full- 
est extent.  Push  forward  vigorously  with 
troops  you  report  near  Merval."  And  again 
on  the  same  day:  "The  28th  Division  occu- 
pies the  northern  extremities  of  spurs  on  south 
bank  of  the  Aisne  with  patrols  in  Maizy,  Mus- 
court  and  Meurival.  They  report  no  liaison 
with  the  154th  Brigade.  This  is  probably  due 
to  the  more  aggressive  advance  made  by  that 
division.  You  must  at  once  push  your  patrols 
out  to  the  Aisne  and  get  G.  C.'s  across  same 
to  the  heights  on  the  north." 

The  conception  seemed  to  the  Second  Bat- 
talion to  be  over-enthusiastic.  The  patrols  in 
Maizy,  Muscourt,  and  Meurival  seemed  to  be 
exercising  singularly  little  restraint  on  the 
Germans  in  and  about  Glennes;  while  the 
heights  north  of  the  Aisne  appeared  as  distant 
as,  though  less  sympathetic  than,  the  shores  of 
America.  On  the  left  the  leading  battalion  of 
the  308th  was  dug  in  north  of  Blanzy  in  touch 
with  "G"  Company.  Of  the  accuracy  of  other 
reports  there  seemed  less  question,  as:  "We  are 
completely  out  of  food  and  have  not  had  any 
since  yesterday  morning,  and  very  little  then. 

108 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

Please  rush  the  rations.  C.  O.  Company  A." 
After  dark  the  advance  was  again  begun. 
"F"  and  "E"  met  fierce  machine-gun  fire  from 
the  head  of  the  Ravin  Marion,  and,  leaving 
a  mixed  post  in  an  old  trench  facing  its  west- 
erly horn,  refused  this  flank.  The  battalion 
advanced  in  column  up  the  road  through  Mer- 
val,  its  commander  acting  as  point.  Across 
the  deep  valley  to  the  left  Serval  was  burning 
furiously,  sending  up  long  columns  of  sparks 
into  the  night,  and  showing  the  black  silhou- 
ettes of  tree  tops  that  scarcely  rose  to  the  brink 
of  the  crest  on  which  the  battalion  moved.  To 
the  north  was  the  glow  of  other  fires  along  the 
Aisne.  Near  the  road- fork  southeast  of  St. 
Pierre  farm  a  German  sentry  was  surprised 
and  captured,  giving  the  information  that  the 
fork  was  strongly  held  by  a  picket,  but  that 
they  would  likely  surrender  if  given  oppor- 
tunity. It  seems  probable  that  the  informa- 
tion was  given  in  good  faith,  and  that  the  cap- 
ture would  have  been  effected  but  for  the  un- 
timely arrival  of  a  German  officer  who  broke 
off  negotiations  and  drove  the  patrol  of  "G" 

109 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Company  down  the  road  with  a  burst  of  ma- 
chine-gun fire. 

Another  patrol  was  sent  to  the  left  to  regain 


the  contact  lost  with  the  leading  elements  of 
the  308th ;  and  after  losing  half  its  number  in 
the  dense  blackness  of  forest  and  swamp  in  the 
Marais  Minard,  under  a  constant  explosion  of 

110 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

gas-shells,  discovered  the  forward  battalion  of 
that  regiment  in  a  formation  something  like  a 
hollow  square  on  the  conical  Butte  de  Bour- 
mont — a  formation  appearing  a  trifle  selfish, 
and  lending  itself  better  to  security  than  to 
liaison;  but,  in  such  warfare  a  commander 
learned  to  entrust  his  flanks  to  himself.  The 
battalion  huddled  itself  down  for  the  night 
upon  the  northern  end  of  the  spur,  and  next 
day  took  position  with  "F,"  "E"  and  "H" 
stretching  from  the  north,  near  the  eastward 
bend  of  the  road,  to  the  sunken  road  and  the 
cellars  of  Merval  on  the  south,  "G"  outposting 
across  the  Marais  Minard  toward  the  308th, 
and  battalion  headquarters,  dressing  station, 
and  the  reserve  platoons,  in  two  large  caves  to 
the  north  of  the  church. 

September  sixth  and  seventh  passed  with- 
out notable  event  beyond  a  slow  but  steady 
drain  of  casualties  from  artillery  and  machine- 
gun  fire,  and  a  constant  drenching  of  gas  where 
"G"  lay  stretched  across  the  swamp-land.  A 
fair  example  of  the  danger  of  forwarding  re- 
ports of  patrols  is  to  be  found  in  that  of  an 
efficient  N.  C.  O.  who  was  sent  with  one  man 

111 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

and  careful  instructions  to  attempt  an  entry 
into  Revillon,  and  report  on  dispositions  of  the 
enemy.  They  returned  in  the  course  of  the 
night  to  report  that  they  passed  through  the 
town  and  found  it  quite  empty.  This  state- 
ment, quite  sincerely  given,  was,  although  re- 
markable, gaining  credence  with  the  battalion 
commander,  when  he  added  the  detail  that  he 
had  met  Captain  Hubbell  of  the  machine-gun 
company  also  wandering  about  the  streets  of 
the  place,  who  had  assured  him  that  there  was 
nothing  there  of  interest.  In  spite  of  the  well- 
known  enterprise  of  this  officer,  he  was  also 
known  to  belong  on  the  left,  and  the  thing 
seemed  unlikely,  receiving  a  more  satisfactory 
explanation  when  Captain  Hubbell  sent  word 
that  he  had  been  in  Barbonval.  One  French 
name  was  often  a  good  deal  like  another  to 
the  American  enlisted  man  and  direction  was 
hard  to  keep  at  night. 

There  was  a  constant  difficulty  of  ration  sup- 
ply, both  in  bringing  up  the  transport  at  night 
over  the  shell-swept  road,  and  in  distributing 
to  the  outlying  platoons.  There  could  be  little 
or  no  attempt  at  providing  cooked  food.    A 

112 


CHURCH    AT   MERVAL,    OVERLOOKING    THE   ENEMY   LINES   TO   THE    NORTH 
AND  USED  AS  AMERICAN  OBSERVATION  POST 


BATTALION    HEADQUARTERS    AT    MKRVAL,    A    FORTY-FOOT    CAM:    1\    mi 

CHALK 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

ration-dump  had  been  established  near  the 
Merval  church;  and  then  one  night  it  was 
changed  to  the  Distillerie,  nearly  a  kilometer 
to  the  south — but  without  warning  of  the 
change  to  the  forward  troops.  After  a  night 
of  fruitless  waiting  at  the  church  they  got 
word  of  the  true  state  of  affairs,  and  hurried 
down  to  the  Distillerie  in  time  to  see  the  entire 
ration-dump  obliterated  by  the  direct  hit  of 
one  six-inch  shell.  The  latter  catastrophe  was 
of  course  unavoidable ;  but  the  lack  of  coopera- 
tion signalized  in  the  first  part  was  far  from 
rare,  and  added  a  burden  of  hardship  which 
was  more  keenly  felt  than  the  privations  which 
were  known  to  be  inevitable. 

On  the  evening  of  September  eighth,  after 
arrangements  had  been  completed  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  Second  Battalion  by  the  Third,  an 
order  was  received  calling  for  an  attack  upon 
Revillon,  La  Roche,  and  Cuchery,  reorganiza- 
tion upon  that  ground,  and  a  further  advance 
to  the  Bois  de  Senfontaine  and  Maizy.  The 
line  of  departure  from  which  the  advance  was 
to  be  made  was  indicated  as  approximately 
straight  from  Le  Verdillon  on  the  left  to  cross- 

113 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

roads  123.2  (at  the  "G"  in  "Glennes")  on  the 
right;  and  the  rolling  barrage  behind  which  it 
was  to  move  was  scheduled  for  6:45  P.  M. 
"G"  Company  was  deployed  along  its  line  of 
outposts,  "E"  across  the  north  end  of  the  Mer- 
val  ridge,  "H"  facing  east  along  the  sunken 
road,  and  "F"  behind  it  in  support.  "C"  and 
"B"  were  also  brought  up  to  support  the  left 
and  center.  On  the  left,  the  line  of  departure 
was  closely  approximated,  but  on  the  right  was 
looked  upon  as  a  first  objective,  its  indication 
as  a  starting-point  being  a  sort  of  corollary  to 
the  myth,  still  persistent,  that  the  28th  was 
across  the  Aisne.  At  6 :45  all  companies  start- 
ed forward.  A  passing  shower  blew  in  from 
the  east,  and  as  the  troops  deployed  upon  the 
open  ground  they  saw  the  grassy  heights  of  La 
Petite  Montagne  through  a  veil  of  glistening 
rain  and  spanned  by  a  rainbow  arch — but  there 
was  little  of  victory  in  that  fair  omen,  and 
much  of  death. 

"G"  and  "C"  had  no  sooner  come  out  upon 
the  meadows  beyond  Le  Verdillon  than  they 
were  met  by  a  hurricane  of  shells  and  machine- 
gun  fire  from  the  sunken  road  northwest  of 

114 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

St.  Pierre  farm,  from  the  houses  of  Revillon, 
and  from  the  heights  of  La  Petite  Montagne. 
They  staggered  a  short  distance  forward  upon 
their  hopeless  way  toward  the  wire  lining  the 
road  in  their  front,  and  then  reeled  back  to  the 
shelter  of  the  woods  whence  they  had  come. 
The  deployment  of  "E"  and  "H"  had  no  soon- 
er begun  than  the  whole  plateau  was  swept  by 
converging  fire  from  La  Petite  Montagne, 
Glennes,  and  the  Ravin  Marion,  while  artil- 
lery searched  the  road  from  north  to  south. 
"F,"  attempting  to  deploy  in  support  behind 
"H,"  was  forced  to  withdraw  to  the  shelter  of 
the  road  till  "H"  should  have  gained  distance; 
and  "H,"  mistaking  their  withdrawal  for  an 
abandonment  of  the  attack,  began  also  to  recoil 
from  before  that  withering  fire.  Then  "F," 
reforming,  passed  through  it,  and  struggled  on 
to  the  edge  of  the  ravine.  At  the  same  time 
"B"  was  passing  through  the  thinning  ranks 
of  "E"  Company.  The  losses  were  bravely 
taken,  but  there  was  never  a  chance  of  success, 
and  at  dusk,  when  "B"  Company  had  been 
drawn  back  through  the  smoke  from  a  precar- 
ious foothold  gained  in  the  bottom  of  the  east- 

115 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ern  valley,  the  battalion  returned  to  its  orig- 
inal positions.  About  8  P.  M.  a  message  was 
received  stating  that  the  supporting  artillery 
for  the  attack  would  not  open  fire  till  7:30; 
and  whether  or  not  it  did  then  open  fire  no  one 
noticed,  nor  was  any  further  attack  attempted 
that  night.  Before  dawn  the  relief  by  the 
Third  Battalion  was  effected,  and  the  Second 
Battalion  withdrew  with  an  effective  strength 
of  247  men,  or  25  per  cent  of  their  original 
number. 

The  First  Battalion,  supposed  during  this 
time  to  be  in  support  position  five  hundred 
yards  to  the  rear,  found  itself  in  fact  engaged 
upon  the  right,  and  so  remained  during  much 
of  the  occupation  of  the  front  by  the  Third 
Battalion.  The  153rd  Brigade  on  the  left,  and 
the  troops  beyond  them  had  gained  consider- 
able ground  toward  the  Aisne,  but  the  28th 
Division,  suffering  a  reverse  on  the  right,  had 
withdrawn  under  heavy  artillery  fire  till  their 
left  reached  almost  to  the  crest  of  the  south- 
ward slope;  and  the  capture  at  night  of  an 
outpost  of  "D"  Company,  holding  the  right 
of  the  battalion,  was  the  first  indication  that 

116 


ACROSS  THE  VESLE 

this  flank  was  widely  exposed.  Then  an  enemy 
patrol  of  some  fifteen  men  stumbled  upon  the 
company  front.  Neither  side  had  warning  of 
the  coming  collision,  and  at  point-blank  range 
the  German  boy-officer  shouted  the  order  to 
charge.  It  was  probably  not  more  than  a  rec- 
onnaissance in  force,  for  it  left  its  dead  on  the 
field,  including  its  officer,  and  only  the  German 
artillery  took  revenge  for  its  losses.  Yet  a  sol- 
dier of  "D,"  taken  prisoner  with  the  outpost 
and  returning  after  the  armistice,  reported  that 
he  had  seen  what  looked  like  two  regiments  of 
the  enemy  massed  in  and  about  the  Ravin,  each 
man  armed  with  four  grenades  and  apparently 
intending  to  drive  through  the  First  Battalion 
position  and  cut  off  the  Second  Battalion  be- 
yond Merval;  but  this  attack  was  never  deliv- 
ered. "D"  was  withdrawn,  forming  a  front  to 
the  flank  across  the  grassy  plateau,  and  the 
battalion  here  remained,  save  for  its  subsequent 
attacks  upon  the  Ravin,  in  a  very  constant 
drenching  of  gas. 


CHAPTER  VI 

MERVAL 

The  Third  Battalion,  after  two  or  three  days 
at  Sergy,  had,  on  the  afternoon  of  September 
fourth,  been  moved  forward  to  the  Bois  de  la 
Pisotte,  and  then  on  to  Villesavoye,  camping 
there  on  the  hillside  as  Divisional  Reserve. 
Here  a  spectacular  little  incident  was  played 
out  in  the  air.  The  huge  bulk  of  an  observa- 
tion balloon,  attached  by  cable  to  a  motor- 
truck, moved  down  the  hill  from  the  south,  and 
had  barely  passed  when  an  enemy  plane  ap- 
peared high  above.  The  balloon  began  a  cum- 
bersome descent,  swaying  its  head  this  way  and 
that  like  some  helpless  creature  attacked;  the 
plane  dipped  forward  in  a  long  nose-dive.  On 
the  hilltop  to  the  east  a  machine-gun  opened 
fire  into  the  air,  another  to  the  west,  then  an- 
other, another,  and  another — the  white  smoke 
tentacles  of  their  tracer-bullets  meeting  and 

118 


MERVAL 

crossing  in  a  lacy  canopy  against  the  blue  sky 
over  the  back  of  the  balloon.  Down  swept  the 
plane  like  a  diving  fish-hawk,  down  along  the 
path  of  its  own  thread-like  fire,  down  and 
down,  sheer  through  that  screen  of  burning 
bullets,  along  the  broad  back  of  its  victim,  then 
up  at  a  dizzy  angle  and  away,  while  a  sheet  of 
flame  and  some  crumpled  wreckage  dropped 
to  earth  behind  it.  The  enemy  attacking  planes 
were  very  active  during  all  this  period,  and  as 
many  as  three  Allied  observation  balloons  were 
seen  in  flames  at  a  single  time. 

After  dark  on  the  sixth,  the  Third  Battal- 
ion moved  forward  to  beyond  the  northern  out- 
skirts of  Fismette,  where  for  nearly  an  hour 
an  enemy  bombing-squadron  turned  the  still 
night  into  a  chaos  of  noise  and  flying  debris 
about  their  heads.  Here,  about  midnight  of 
the  eighth-ninth,  the  same  night  upon  which 
the  28th  Division  on  the  right  was  relieved  by 
the  62nd  French  Division,  they  received  or- 
ders to  proceed  to  the  relief  of  the  Second  Bat- 
talion at  Merval;  and,  after  passing  with  a 
number  of  casualties  through  some  fairly  se- 
vere shelling  on  the  road,  they  took  over  at 

119 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

dawn— "K"  on  the  left  near  Le  Verdillon,  "L" 
in  the  low  ground  between  Merval  and  Serval, 
"I"  and  "M"  along  the  crest  of  the  ridge  fac- 
ing east.  Orders  had  been  initiated  for  a  fur- 
ther advance  at  dawn  in  conjunction  with  the 
French  on  the  right,  but  were  not  immediately 
received  by  the  troops,  nor  was  any  advance 
upon  the  right  in  evidence.  "I"  and  "M"  were 
ordered  to  send  each  a  platoon  across  the  open 
plateau  to  take  position  on  the  wooded  slopes 
overlooking  the  ground  north  of  Fond  de  Vas, 
and  to  be  prepared  to  support  the  French  left 
as  soon  as  their  advance  should  have  developed 
and  passed  beyond  Glennes.  This  order,  whose 
execution  it  was,  in  the  first  instance,  contem- 
plated should  take  place  under  cover  of  dark- 
ness, was  actually  carried  out  between  8  and 
9  A.  M.,  and  the  slopes,  though  appearing  on 
the  map  to  afford  probable  cover,  actually  af- 
forded none. 

As  the  lieutenant  of  "M"  Company  reached 
the  brink,  a  wolf -like  dog,  with  a  message  at  his 
collar,  trotted  out  from  behind  a  bush,  froze 
for  a  startled  instant,  and  then  wheeled  back  at 
a  run.     The  platoon,  looking  in  vain  for  its 

120 


MERVAL 

promised  shelter,  moved  down  the  slope  in 
squad  rushes ;  and  at  once  a  battery  of  field  ar- 
tillery opened  upon  them  with  direct  fire.  Men 
may  speak  lightly  in  retrospect  of  their  dislike 
for  "whizz-bangs,"  but  the  point-blank  fire  of 
field-guns  at  a  target  pilloried  in  the  open  is 
an  ordeal  to  wrench  men's  souls — the  swift 
rush  of  sound,  the  instantaneous  crash  of  the 
explosion,  and  then  the  scream  of  some  disem- 
boweled comrade — again  and  again,  and  no- 
where on  earth  to  turn  to  for  help.  The  pla- 
toon of  "M"  Company  was  withdrawn  with 
losses  to  the  sunken  road. 

The  platoon  of  "I"  on  the  left,  with  a  little 
better  shelter,  held  on,  and,  sending  word  of  its 
condition,  was  ordered  still  to  hold.  No  friend- 
ly barrage  appeared  across  its  front — it  had 
fallen,  such  as  it  was,  three  hours  before — nor 
was  there  any  movement  of  French  troops 
across  the  valley;  but  instead  the  fire  of  ma- 
chine-guns and  rifle-grenades  grew  steadily  in 
intensity  upon  its  position,  mixed  with  over- 
head bursts  of  H.  E.  and  occasional  long-han- 
dled hand-grenades  from  the  scrub  to  the  left, 
while  an  interdiction  fire  of  artillery  was  laid 

121 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

on  the  plateau  behind.  After  an  hour  of  hope- 
less self-sacrifice,  when  their  left  outpost  had 
been  cut  off  and  all  either  killed  or  captured, 
they  too  withdrew,  singly,  along  the  bottom  of 
a  little  draw  across  the  plateau,  their  lieuten- 
ant carried  out  in  their  rear  with  a  bullet 
through  both  lungs.    So  much  for  the  right. 

On  the  left  "K"  Company,  supported  by 
two  platoons  of  "L,"  having  received  appar- 
ently mistaken  orders  to  attack,  advanced  at 
3 :40  P.  M.,  nine  hours  behind  its  barrage,  in 
support  of  an  unsuccessful  French  attack  upon 
Glennes  which  had  ceased,  and  moved  across 
the  open  ground  toward  Revillon.  Again  from 
the  sunken  road  to  La  Petite  Montagne  ma- 
chine-guns and  artillery  burst  into  action.  Few 
even  reached  the  wire ;  none  crossed  it ;  and,  at 
4  o'clock,  "K"  Company  withdrew  with  fifty- 
two  casualties. 

The  First  Battalion,  in  conjunction  with  the 
French  attack  upon  the  right,  had  been  attack- 
ing the  Ravin  from  the  south  and  west,  and, 
after  considerable  loss,  had  established  them- 
selves across  its  wooded  southern  end.  The 
French,   beyond   the   swell   of   ground,   had 

122 


MERVAL 

gained  possession  of  the  bluffs  of  the  Bois  de 
la  Sauix  up  toward  Le  Chapon;  but  the  east- 
ern side  of  the  valley  was  still  strongly  held  by 
enemy  machine-guns  in  concealment,  some- 
times within  a  few  rods  of  the  American  rifle- 
pits,  and  was  furthermore  completely  domin- 
ated by  observation  and  fire  from  La  Petite 
Montagne.  Though  the  distance  here  was  over 
2000  meters  it  had  been  so  well  measured  by 
the  enemy  that  this  long  range  machine-gun 
fire  was  terribly  effective;  and  their  mastery 
of  the  air  during  this  fighting  gave  great  ac- 
curacy to  their  artillery.  On  the  night  of  the 
ninth  "I"  Company  established  itself  in  the 
southeast  horn  of  the  Ravin  Marion,  and  "M" 
in  the  southwest.  There  was  no  immediate  re- 
sistance to  this  occupation,  though  the  men, 
here  dug  in,  remained  under  a  constant  fire. 

From  September  tenth  to  thirteenth  there 
was  no  conspicuous  movement  upon  this  front. 
"M"  Company  had  pushed  a  combat  group 
north  along  its  slope  to  a  point  a  little  short  of 
the  Fond  de  Vas;  "L"  Company,  which  had 
suffered  constantly  from  artillery  fire  from 
the  left  rear — and  it  always  was  denied,  though 

123 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

not  to  the  conviction  of  the  troops,  that  this 
was  from  friendly  artillery — had  been  moved 
up  into  caves  and  cellars  on  the  Merval  ridge. 
A  field-message  book  of  the  lieutenant  in 
charge  of  "L"  Company  at  this  time,  picked 
up  in  the  Marais  six  months  later,  shows  how 
constant  was  this  difficulty  of  artillery  from 
the  rear: 

"September  9th. — 2 :45.  Our  artillery  is  fir- 
ing within  25  yards  of  Company  Headquar- 
ters.    Whizz-bangs,  and  lots  of  them. 

"September  9th. — 3:45.  Our  artillery  just 
dropped  a  shell  100  yards  east  of  Company 
Headquarters,  in  woods  where  we  have  a  pla- 
toon.   Shells  seem  to  be  coming  from  west. 

"September  9th. — 4:55.  Our  artillery  bar- 
raged  Serval  in  our  rear  at  4 :50.  It  is  begin- 
ning to  tell  on  the  men. 

"September  9th. — 7:45.  Our  artillery  just 
fired  some  low  trajectory  shells  from  our  left 
in  woods  75  yards  in  front  of  Company  Head- 
quarters.   Do  try  to  stop  them." 

All  this  may  of  course  have  been  slander. 
Though  the  direction  of  the  front  here  ran  al- 
most northwest  it  is  often  possible  to  mistake 

124 


MERVAL 

the  direction  of  artillery-fire,  and,  further,  a 
German  gun  was  reported  to  be  found  in  ac- 
tion well  behind  the  American  line.  But  the 
opinion  of  those  who  lay  day  after  day  in  those 
gas-drenched  woods  amounted  to  conviction — 
and  it  was  uncharitable. 

The  cave  of  Battalion  Headquarters,  where 
by  candle-light  the  surgeons  were  constantly 
at  work,  passed  on  its  daily  quota  to  hospital  or 
burial.  A  broken  stake,  driven  into  the  side- 
wall  of  the  cave  and  supposed  to  be  a  German 
booby-trap,  was  guarded  day  and  night  by  a 
sentry,  and  remained  as  a  modern  Sword  of 
Damocles.  The  roadside  cavern  near  regi- 
mental headquarters,  itself  a  cavern  in  the 
chalky  hill,  had  been  hopefully  prepared  for 
American  occupants  by  the  slow  leakage  of 
gas-shells  placed  within — and  not  without  re- 
sults. 

For  dawn  of  September  fourteenth  another 
attack  was  ordered,  again  conforming  to  the 
left  of  an  advance  by  the  62nd  French  Divi- 
sion, and  outposts  were  drawn  in  prior  to  the 
artillery  preparation.  This  opened  at  5 :15  for 
half  an  hour,  mixed  with  an  intense  indirect  fire 

125 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

of  machine-guns  from  the  French.  The  enemy 
counter-barrage  came  down  at  5:30,  lasting, 
with  drum-fire  of  88's,  105's,  and  150's,  almost 
continuously  till  eleven.  The  eastward  valley 
offered  a  spectacle  of  unforgettable  grandeur. 
In  the  earlier  darkness  some  wooden  buildings, 
afire  at  its  mouth,  lit  a  false  dawn  in  the  east. 
Then  in  the  growing  light  one  saw  its  level 
meadows  cloaked  with  the  mists  of  morning, 
and  its  steep  sides  shrouded  in  smoke;  they 
mingled  and  merged  into  one  vast  cauldron  of 
vapor,  stabbed  through  and  through  with  flash- 
es of  fire,  blotting  out  the  farmsteads  beyond, 
till  only  La  Petite  Montagne,  floating  above 
a  sea  of  cloud  against  a  blood-red  sky  of  dawn, 
lifted  its  smoking,  flame-wreathed  head  like  a 
volcano  in  eruption;  and  always  through  the 
crash  and  shock  of  explosions  wove  the  swift 
hammer-song  of  countless  machine-guns.  Yet 
slight  indeed  was  the  advance  effected.  "I" 
Company  succeeded  in  working  along  the  east 
side  of  the  valley  about  half  its  length  to  a 
point  of  contact  with  the  French,  who  never 
gained  a  mastery  of  Glennes,  if  indeed  they 
entered  it;  "M"  did  no  more  than  resume  its 

126 


MERVAL 

former  position  along  the  west  side.  "D" 
Company  occupied  the  valley-bottom  until 
shelled  out  of  it  again  to  join  in  an  ineffective 
advance  with  "A"  and  "B"  in  the  afternoon. 
Late  that  evening  Lieutenant  Jenkins,  in  com- 
mand of  "D,"  upon  a  self-authorized  mission 
to  the  French  major,  succeeded,  in  probably 
incomprehensible  French  and  lucid  gestures, 
in  effectively  directing  him  to  reoccupy  the 
bluffs  overlooking  Glennes,  which  he  was  about 
to  abandon. 

"K"  Company,  with  half  of  "L"  in  support, 
started  upon  an  eventful  day.  Battalion  head- 
quarters had  been  moved  back,  previous  to  the 
bombardment,  to  a  cellar  in  Merval,  where, 
about  6  A.  M.,  qualified  orders  were  given  to 
"K"  and  "L"  Companies.  These  were  to  be 
prepared  to  take  position  for  an  attack  upon 
Revillon  within  thirty-five  minutes  of  receipt 
of  word  that  Glennes  had  been  captured  by  the 
French.  At  10  A.  M.  the  major  of  the  First 
Battalion,  which  was  acting  in  close  support 
of  the  Third,  came  forward  with  an  order  that 
the  left  should  be  prepared  to  attack  at  9 :30. 
The  lieutenant  in  charge  of  that  part  of  "L" 

127 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

started  down  into  the  Marais  Minard  with  in- 
structions to  connect  with  troops  on  his  right 
and  await  the  lifting  of  the  barrage  in  his 
front.  The  three  succeeding  messages  he  sent 
back  were  to  the  effect  that  there  were  neither 
troops  on  his  right  nor  a  barrage  in  his  front. 
At  about  eleven  he,  together  with  "K"  on  his 
left,  attacked. 

The  enemy  resistance  was  in  no  wray  weak- 
ened, but  after  heavy  losses  they  dug  in  along 
the  wire  before  the  sunken  road,  the  line  run- 
ning southeast  and  northwest  from  beyond  St. 
Pierre  Ferme  to  somewhat  short  of  the  first 
crossroad.  Here  they  held  during  the  after- 
noon and  the  fighting  had  seemed  to  be  over 
for  the  day,  when,  at  4 :55  P.  M.,  the  captain 
of  "K"  received  word  that  a  barrage  would  be 
laid  down  along  the  wire  and  the  road  at  five 
o'clock.  There  was  no  time  to  protest;  there 
was  no  time  to  organize  a  withdrawal;  there 
was  no  means  of  guessing  that  the  barrage 
would  consist  of  some  seven  or  eight  shells 
which  would  better  have  been  faced  where  the 
companies  then  were.  They  streamed  back 
across  the  meadows,  and  reorganized  under 

128 


MERVAL 

cover  for  a  fresh  attack.  But  this  could  not  be 
immediately  accomplished,  and  though  "M" 
and  "I"  of  the  308th  were  thrown  in  on  the 
left  and  "C"  of  the  307th  on  the  right,  the  at- 
tack, when  delivered  at  dusk,  was  the  most 
costly  yet  launched  over  that  trampled,  blood- 
soaked  way.  They  cut  a  way  through  the  wire, 
wiped  out  the  crews  of  four  machine-guns  in 
the  sunken  road,  and  established  themselves  in 
a  German  trench  on  the  near  brink  of  it.  "C" 
was  then  drawn  back  into  right  support;  the 
two  companies  of  the  308th  were  in  support 
on  the  left.  Five  officers  had  fallen  in  the  two 
attacks — Lieutenant  Felter  with  a  bullet 
through  the  forehead  as  he  emptied  his  gun  at 
the  muzzle  of  a  machine-gun  in  action — and 
only  one  officer  was  left  on  the  front  line. 

A  fresh  squad  from  "L"  Company  came 
down  from  the  cave  on  the  ridge,  and,  without 
finding  the  rest  of  their  company  or  any  one 
who  could  give  them  instructions,  settled  down 
on  the  right.  The  night  came  down  very  dark. 
At  eight  o'clock  an  enemy  barrage  came  down 
on  the  position,  held  for  twenty  minutes,  most- 
ly upon  the  Marais  to  the  rear,  and  then  lifted ; 

129 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

there  came  the  shuffling  of  feet  in  the  darkness 
ahead,  a  command,  hoarse  shouting  of  German 
voices,  a  calling  out  for  Lieutenant  Miller, 
then  a  volley  of  hand-grenades  and  the  Amer- 
ican  line  broke  to  the  left.  Lieutenant  Miller 
was  last  seen  doing  his  single  best  to  rally  it, 
and  his  body  was  never  found.  Two  chauchat 
posts  were  still  in  action,  firing  across  the  front 
from  the  right,  but  the  sunken  road  and  trench 
were  again  occupied  by  the  enemy.  How  the 
broken  troops  got  back  none  of  them  ever  knew 
— somewhere  through  or  around  the  308th. 
There  was  one  more  attack  before  dawn  when 
the  Italians,  who  were  now  waiting  to  take 
over  the  sector,  insisted  upon  a  trench,  no  mat- 
ter where  situated,  for  them  to  occupy;  and 
the  captain  of  "K,"  sweeping  together  what 
troops  he  could  find,  filed  through  the  gaps  in 
the  wire,  reoccupied  the  trench  beyond  with  a 
shower  of  hand-grenades,  and,  turning  it  over 
to  the  Italians,  left  them  to  work  out  their  own 
salvation.  This  was  found  in  an  early  with- 
drawal. 

The  Italians  had  begun  passing  that  eve- 
ning through  Fismes,  where  Rear  Regimental 

130 


MERVAL 

Headquarters  was  located  in  a  cellar.  The 
town  was  still  under  fairly  constant  shell-fire 
— a  dreary  place  of  dust  and  debris  and  sun- 
scorched  carriGn.  The  Italians  expressed 
themselves,  through  interpreters,  as  dissatis- 
fied with  the  whole  situation;  and  no  one  dis- 
agreed with  them.  Yet  their  escape  in  the 
streets  of  Fismes  seemed  miraculous.  They 
arrived,  about  two  battalions  together,  in  close 
column  of  squads,  and  met  head  on  with  a 
column  of  withdrawing  French,  where,  at  the 
bridge  between  Fismes  and  Fismette,  a  motor- 
truck had  broken  down  across  the  right  of  way. 
On  the  street  where,  since  the  costly  crossing 
of  the  Second  Battalion,  no  larger  body  than 
a  platoon  had  been  allowed  to  congregate,  a 
force  of  nearly  three  battalions  stood  crowded 
together;  where,  for  fear  of  drawing  shell-fire, 
never  a  lighted  cigarette-butt  had  been  shown, 
the  place  looked  like  a  hay-field  filled  with  fire- 
flies; and,  almost  stationary,  they  stood  there 
for  seven  hours.  The  American  M.  P.  in 
charge  of  road-traffic  was  faced  with  a  serious 
problem;  and,  as  neither  French  nor  Italians 
either  understood  or  followed  any  of  his  sug- 

131 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

gestions,  he  failed  to  master  it.  The  interest 
of  Regimental  Headquarters  was  frankly  self- 
ish— they  wanted  the  Italians  to  live  long 
enough  to  effect  the  relief,  and  then  they  might 
choose  their  own  way.  A  little  before  day- 
light the  Italians  won  through  and  continued 
their  firefly-way  to  the  front;  and  through  the 
whole  night  a  solitary  shell  exploded  near  the 
bridge,  and  injured  only  a  single  mule. 

The  relief  of  the  front  was  decidedly  com- 
plicated. On  the  night  of  the  14th-15th,  the 
Second  Battalion  relieved  the  First;  during 
the  same  night  the  Italians  had  on  the  left  been 
persuaded  and  maneuvered  into  taking  over; 
elsewhere  they  expressed  a  reasonable  but  un- 
timely wish  to  reconnoiter.  Nothing  notice- 
able occurred  during  the  day,  beyond  a  grow- 
ing irritation  with  the  Italians,  and  that  night 
the  Second  Battalion  drew  out. 

Morning  of  the  sixteenth  found  "M"  and 
"I"  Companies  still  occupying  opposite  sides 
of  the  unloved  valley  and  adrift  in  a  world  of 
loneliness  and  foreigners.  At  intervals  a 
Frenchman,  in  evident  distress,  would  slide 
over  the  bank  into  the  P.  C.  and  gasp  out: 

132 


MERVAL 

"Les  Bodies!  Les  Bodies!"  or  a  deputation 
of  Italians  would,  with  equal  emotion,  demand 
explanation  of  things  that  no  one  knew  about 
in  a  language  which  no  one  understood;  and 
meantime  there  were  being  sent  hither  and 
thither  messengers  who  seldom  found  the  prop- 
er recipient  of  their  message,  more  seldom  re- 
turned with  a  reply,  and  almost  never  solved 
the  difficulty  referred  to.  Toward  noon  the 
lieutenant  in  command  of  "M"  Company  sent 
word  to  the  lieutenant  in  command  of  "I,"  ask- 
ing if  he  were  still  there  and  how  he  did;  and 
Lieutenant  Lord,  in  command  of  "I,"  sent  re- 
ply: "Battalion  Headquarters  seems  a  little 
incoherent,  and  our  new  allies  a  trifle  excitable ; 
but  I  am  having  a  perfectly  good  time,  and 
hope  you  are  too.    Why  worry?" 

The  message  expresses  much  of  the  spirit  of 
the  American  army.  After  dark  of  the  six- 
teenth these  two  companies,  having  received 
permission  to  draw  out  at  their  discretion,  left 
the  Italians  to  arrange,  after  their  own  man- 
ner, their  difficulties  with  themselves  and  the 
enemy.  The  Regiment  was  assembled,  dur- 
ing the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth,  some  march- 

133 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ing,  others  carried  in  lorries,  half  famished  and 
wholly  exhausted,  in  the  quiet  woods  between 
Arcis  le  Ponsart  and  the  Abbaye  d'Igny,  six- 
teen kilometers  to  the  south. 


THE  SUNKEN  ROAD — MERVAL,  SHOWING   A  LITTER  OF  AMERICAN   EQlIP- 
MFA'T  AT  THE  ROADSIDE — THE  DEBRIS  OF  THREE  ATTACKS 


WLE8TONE8  <>N  Till.  UtiAl)  TO  VICTORY 


«    »  c         • 


CHAPTER  VII 

SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

As  giving  a  fair  picture  of  the  more  cheer- 
ful side  of  hospital  experience  at  this  time, 
some  extracts  from  letters  and  a  diary  may 
here  be  of  slight  interest. 

"It  seemed  a  long  way  back.  The  first  part, 
of  course,  I  walked,  but  I  had  swallowed  a  fair 
amount  of  blood  and  when  I  added  a  lungful 
of  gas,  in  a  swampy  hollow  into  which  I 
dropped  to  get  rid  of  some  overhead  H.  E., 
it  made  me  sick.  As  I  passed  the  chalky  hill- 
top of  the  forward  dressing-station  four  shells 
burst  near  the  mouth  of  the  cave ;  so  I  went  on. 
There  is  nothing  there  but  a  dressing-station, 
and  I  don't  see  why  they  can't  leave  it  alone. 
At  Les  Pres  farm  Lieutenant  Sloane,  one  of 
the  most  cheerful  souls  on  God's  earth,  dressed 
the  wound,  gave  me  an  injection  of  A.  T.  S. 
(anti-tetanus  serum)  and  put  me  on  the  front 

135 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

seat  of  an  ambulance  for  the  divisional  station 
at  Mareuil-en-Dole. 

"Upon  arriving  at  this  station  they  looked 
over  the  bandages,  and  gave  me  a  lot  of  steam- 
ing hot  coffee ;  then  on  again  through  Fere-en- 
Tardenois  and,  seemingly  for  hours,  through 
a  quiet  moonlit  country  of  woods  and  meadows 
blanketed  in  cold  mist,  to  a  chateau  and  a  vast 
tent  rilled  with  loaded  stretchers.  One  was  a 
Boche,  wounded  somewhere  in  the  back,  so 
that  he  lay  on  his  face  and  kept  glancing  over 
his  shoulders  as  though  expecting  to  be  bay- 
oneted. There  was  an  attractive  girl  there  in 
a  red  flannel  waist,  going  round  among  the 
wounded — and  it  seemed  as  though  I  hadn't 
seen  one  for  years.  I  saw  my  poor  guide  there, 
too,  and  his  arm  looked  rather  bad.  He  had 
three  bullets  through  it.  I  never  shall  forget 
seeing  him  trying  to  bend  it  up  in  a  ball  and 
stuff  it  in  his  pocket  as  he  ran.  He  still  seemed 
much  more  concerned  over  me  than  himself. 

"The  surgeons  were  desperately  busy,  but 
yet  seemed  to  find  time  for  gentleness  and  kind- 
ness and  a  hearty  cheerfulness  which  wasn't 
boisterous  enough  to  jar.  From  time  to  time 
an  orderly  or  the  girl  would  come  by  to  ask 
if  I  needed  blankets  or  cigarettes  or  cocoa,  or 

136 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

would  like  to  lie  down  on  a  stretcher  till  the 
ambulance  came  to  take  me  on. 

"During  the  next  ride  I  had  rather  lost  sense 
of  direction  or  time,  but  it  was  nearly  dawn, 
and  bitterly  cold,  when  we  reached  the  Evacu- 
ation Hospital  at  Couin.  I  was  told  to  undress 
in  a  windy  tent  and  waited  half  an  hour,  with 
a  blanket  round  me  and  my  valuables  in  a  little 
cotton  bag  at  my  side,  for  my  turn  on  the  table, 
so  I  was  shivering  like  a  leaf  when  I  got  on. 
The  operating  major,  a  thin,  bruskly  spoken 
little  man,  glanced  me  over  and  up  and  down 
and  then,  looking  searchingly  into  my  face,  as 
though  trying  to  master  my  spirit,  told  me 
shortly  not  to  be  so  nervous.  It  annoyed  me 
and  I  probably  showed  it,  for  next  day  he  lent 
me  his  dressing-gown  and  the  use  of  his  tent, 
with  its  comfortable  armchair,  box  of  cigars, 
and  set  of  Kipling.  We  were  ranged  in  cots 
along  both  sides  of  a  long  ward-tent,  and,  ex- 
cept for  the  food  and  the  flies,  were  very  well 
looked  after. 

"One  doesn't  like  to  complain,  but  the  food 
was  really  very  poor  and  insufficient,  and  the 
constant  swarm  of  flies  about  my  face-band- 
ages rather  exhausting.  There  were  only  two 
fly-nets  available  for  the  ward,  and  they,  of 
course,  were  wanted  for  the  men  who  couldn't 

137 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

move  their  arms.  It  is  the  unnecessary  hard- 
ships that  one  feels  the  most,  and  only  they  of 
which  one  has  right  to  complain.  And  one  is 
so  sure  that  the  people  at  home  wish  us,  who 
are  in  hospital,  to  be  properly  fed  and,  when 
we  need  it,  to  be  provided  with  a  few  yards  of 
mosquito-netting  so  that  we  could  lie  still.  They 
have  sacrificed  dearly  for  such  things  and  much 
more — and  yet  it  seems  that  they  can't  reach 
us  with  their  sacrifices. 

"The  28th  Division  seemed  to  be  having  a 
bad  time  around  Fismes.  All  day  long  officers 
were  coming  in  on  stretchers  from  the  operat- 
ing room.  A  Texas  major,  a  great  whale  of 
a  man,  was  put  in  the  cot  beside  me,  gloriously 
drunk  with  ether.  I  heard  him  muttering  to 
himself : 

"  'The  best  looking  bunch  of  Huns  I  ever 
seen — them  were  regular  fellows.'  Then  he 
lifted  a  red  unshaven  face  from  the  pillow  to 
blink  at  me. 

"  'Say,'  he  whispered  confidingly,  'them  per- 
tater-smashers  is  great.  I  seen  three  men  try- 
ing to  get  out  of  one  window  to  get  rid  of  one 
of  them  fellows.'  A  pause,  while  he  vomited 
over  the  side  of  the  bed,  then  with  a  chuckle, 
'and  they  done  it,  too — I  was  one  of  'em.' 

"He  dropped  back  on  to  the  pillow  and 
138 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

made  faces  at  the  fly  on  his  nose ;  then,  having 
made  up  his  mind  to  brush  it  off,  he  stared  at 
his  hand  for  a  moment  and  resumed  with  sud- 
den earnestness. 

"  'I  want  to  tell  you  about  George.  George 
is  a  damn  good  kid.  One  of  'em  calls  acrost 
the  street,  "Was  Kompanie  ist  das?"  and 
George  sort  of  sneezes  at  him  in  Dutch  while 
he  pulls  the  string  on  a  pertater-smasher.  So 
the  Hun  asks  it  again  and  George  lobs  the 
thing  across  to  him  in  the  dark.  Hell  of  a  way 
to  answer  a  civil  question!  He  must  ha'  had 
some  friends  though,  and  what  they  done  to  us 
was  too  much — I  wish  some  one  'ud  find 
George.  He's  a  damn  good  kid.'  Then  he 
dropped  off  to  sleep. 

"Some  time  in  the  night  I  heard  them  car- 
rying in  a  man  to  the  cot  opposite — raving  his 
way  out  of  ether — and  I  recognized  Major 
Jay's  voice : 

"  *  What's  the  matter?  Oh,  you're  hurting 
my  arm.  .  .  .  All  right,  Dudley,  I'll  stay  here 
a  bit.  Send  again  and  find  out.  You  must 
find  out.    They  can't  all  be  gone.' 

"It  was  terribly  dramatic,  lying  there  in  the 
darkness  and  piecing  together  the  story  of 
some  dim  disaster  to  my  regiment. 

"The  next  day  a  number  of  us  were  carried 
139 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

by  ambulance  to  Chateau  Thierry,  for  a  barge 
trip  down  the  Marne  to  Paris.  As  we  waited 
on  the  float  I  saw  Sergeant  Parkes  of  my  com- 
pany carried  on — four  or  five  of  his  ribs  crushed 
in  by  a  shell.  He  was  very  pale  and  in  some 
pain,  but  I  think  not  severe,  and  he  seemed 
very  glad  to  see  me,  holding  on  to  my  hand 
while  he  spoke.  One  of  the  first  things  he 
asked  was  whether  he  would  be  sent  back  to  the 
company  again  when  he  got  well,  and  what  he 
must  do  to  make  sure  of  it.  I  was  remember- 
ing him  in  the  early  days  at  Upton,  when  he 
never  seemed  to  get  a  uniform  to  fit  him,  and 
how  for  weeks  he  drilled  the  recruits  of  the 
Annex  Barracks  in  an  old  blue  serge  suit  and 
a  campaign  hat ;  and  how  he  came  into  the  or- 
derly room  one  day  with  his  earnest,  respect- 
ful manner  and  slight  stammer,  to  apologize 
for  the  fact  that  his  civilian  shoes  no  longer 
had  soles  on  them.  Brave,  faithful  soul,  he 
died  that  week  in  the  Paris  hospital. 

"For  those  of  us  who  could  sit  on  deck  it 
was  a  wonderful  journey — wrapped  in  our 
bandages  and  blankets  in  the  summer  sunshine, 
watching  the  green  and  peaceful  country  glide 
by — the  sedgy  banks  where  the  water-hens 
paddled  about  through  the  rushes,  the  high 
slopes  of  stubble  and  poppies  with  their  clutch- 

140 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

es  of  pheasants,  lush  meadows  of  pasturing 
cattle,  vistas  of  shiny-leaved  sycamores,  just 
tinting  into  autumn,  and  endless  lines  of  tall 
poplars.  It  breathed  of  a  security  and  quie- 
tude whose  existence  we  had  forgotten,  and  it 
smelled  delicious.  In  the  little  villages  through 
which  we  passed  people  thronged  down  to  the 
water's  edge  to  watch  us  with  an  awed  inter- 
est— for  we  were  the  first  to  pass  that  way — 
and  often  one  heard  the  words:  'Ceux  sont 
les  blesses  Arnericains/  Old  men,  fishing  from 
flat-bottomed  boats — and  French  rivers  are 
lined  with  old  men  fishing — stood  up  with  un- 
covered heads  or  at  salute  as  we  drifted  by; 
and  at  the  locks  children  threw  down  flowers 
to  us.  One  felt  very  proud  of  one's  place  in 
that  simple  pageant,  bearing  witness  through 
the  land  of  France  that  America  had  indeed 
taken  her  stand  beside  France's  thinning  ar- 
mies on  the  line.  At  night  we  tied  up  to  the 
bank  beneath  the  beechwood  of  an  old  chateau, 
and  the  Red  Cross  girls,  who  had  been  circu- 
lating through  the  day  with  grapes  and  choco- 
late and  cigarettes,  cooked  our  supper.  Then 
on  at  sunrise,  winding  and  winding  down  to 
Charerton,  and  by  ambulance  to  Number  3 
Hospital  in  Paris,  which  seemed  to  me  the 

141 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

most  comfortable  and  desirable  spot  on  earth 
— except  home." 

Another  story  written  at  somewhat  later 
date,  after  bitter  fighting  in  the  Argonne 
Forest,  tells  of  another  aspect  of  that  same 
red  journey  back  from  the  line  of  battle: 

"We  had  gone  only  a  little  way  up  the  slope 
when  I  noticed  that  something  was  wrong  with 
my  shoulder,  but  not  much  apparently,  as 
everything  I  had  still  seemed  to  work.  I  never 
felt  when  the  bullet  hit  me.  A  few  minutes 
later  I  was  looking  at  my  map  with  the  bat- 
talion commander  when  something  happened 
again.  There  was  a  sudden  film  of  smoke  be- 
fore my  eyes,  a  sledge-hammer  blow  across  the 
knees,  a  confused  sense  of  lifting,  and  then  I 
was  down  on  my  face  among  the  leaves.  I 
heard  some  one  calling  out: 

"  'The  Captain!  The  Captain!  Don't  leave 
him  there.  All  right,  sir,  we'll  have  you  out 
in  a  moment.' 

"Then  I  was  being  dragged  along  by  the 
arms,  with  my  feet  trailing  useless  behind,  till 
we  came  to  the  railroad  track  and  a  stretcher. 
My  mind  had  cleared  by  that  time  and  I  re- 
member giving  my  legs  a  try,  as  I  couldn't  see 

142 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

a  great  deal  the  matter  with  them;  but  they 
seemed  to  be  missing  on  about  three  cylinders, 
and  I  concluded  to  call  it  a  day.  Four  men 
carried  the  stretcher,  putting  the  poles  on  their 
shoulders,  and  an  officer  told  me  afterward 
that  I  looked  like  some  eastern  potentate  start- 
ing on  a  journey.  I  seemed  to  meet  every  one 
that  I  knew  along  the  railroad  track,  which  was 
cheering,  both  from  their  greetings  and  be- 
cause my  company's  attack  had  looked  rather 
lonely  at  the  time  I  left.  Everything  seemed 
to  be  coming  up,  and  I  was  sure  they  would  be 
needed.  The  battalion  commander  passed  me, 
limping  along  on  his  enormous  stick  toward  the 
rear.  He  said  he  thought  that  he  could  make 
the  grade,  and  that  the  Colonel  of  the  308th 
had  taken  over  command  for  the  moment,  but 
had  sent  back  for  Captain  Grant  to  lead  the 
battalion.  A  little  farther  I  passed  Captain 
Grant  dead  on  the  roadside,  and  his  only  lieu- 
tenant beside  him,  dying.  The  shelling  along 
the  valley  bottom  was  getting  rather  bad,  so,  as 
the  first  aid  post  looked  very  busy,  we  did  not 
stop  there.  Then  I  passed  my  former  company 
drawn  up  in  a  side  gulch,  and  Sergeant  Wat- 
son, who  was  then  in  command  of  it — as  they 
had  no  officers  left,  and  the  First  Sergeant  had 
been  badly  bruised  by  a  shell  splinter — Ser- 

143 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

geant  Watson,  as  I  say,  came  out  and  insisted 
on  looking  me  over  before  I  went  on.  I  remem- 
ber joking  him  about  the  way  he  never  seemed 
to  get  hurt — he  was  so  splendid  a  soldier  that 
one  could  afford  to — and  he  wrinkled  his  fore- 
head and  answered,  rather  apologetically,  that 
he  didn't  know  why  it  was ;  and  then  afterward 
I  heard  that  three  days  later  he  was  killed. 

"He  and  Durgin  were  the  first  sergeants 
that  I  had  made  at  Upton.  He  came  to  camp 
in  an  old  brown  sweater  and  little  gray  cap, 
wearing  his  habitual  rather  worried  and  cross 
expression,  though  in  fact  he  was  neither  cross 
nor  worried,  and  I  had  picked  him  as  a  likely- 
looking  man  to  clean  out  the  wash-house.  The 
place  had  been  turned,  in  the  first  afternoon  of 
use,  to  something  like  a  pigsty  struck  by 
lightning,  and  he  had  turned  it  back  to  the 
resemblance  of  a  Pullman  dining-car.  I  gave 
him  two  men  and  told  him  to  keep  it  so,  and, 
as  soon  as  I  had  heard  him  give  them  instruc- 
tions, added  eight  more  and  told  him  to  clean 
out  the  barracks.  He  didn't  know  a  thing 
about  military  matters,  being  a  steam-fitter  by 
trade,  but  he  was  there  to  learn,  and  he  was 
born  to  command.  In  those  early  days  one 
was  apt  to  use  one's  best  material  rather  self- 
ishly— one  had  to  to  keep  going — and  after 

144 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

keeping  the  inside  of  the  barrack  and  wash- 
house  above  criticism  for  a  fortnight,  while 
Durgin  bossed  a  gang  digging  the  stumps  and 
collecting  and  stacking  loose  lumber  in  the 
company  area — Watson  came  to  me  and  said 
he  was  afraid  of  getting  behind  in  the  drill. 
He  needn't  have  been,  though. 

"I  remember  one  evening  when  I  was  lec- 
turing the  N.  C.  O.'s,  as  one  often  did  after 
supper,  and  was  speaking  of  taking  direction 
from  the  stars.  Very  few  of  them  claimed  to 
know  the  North  Star  by  sight,  so  I  was  draw- 
ing out  the  Big  Dipper  on  the  blackboard,  and 
explaining  why  two  of  its  six  stars  were  called 
the  Pointers,  when  Watson  raised  his  hand  and 
respectfully  suggested  that  I  was  drawing  it 
faced  the  wrong  way.  For  the  life  of  me  I 
didn't  know  whether  I  was  or  not,  but  told  him 
I  would  take  his  word  for  it.  After  that,  of 
course,  I  had  to  say  something  to  reestablish 
my  own  reputation  for  learning,  so  I  touched 
briefly  on  the  difference  between  mean-solar 
and  sidereal  time,  on  the  traveling  of  the  ver- 
nal equinox  in  right  ascension,  and  on  the  mi- 
gration of  the  isogonic  lines.  I  knew  that  it 
couldn't  mean  a  thing  to  them,  and  after  a  few 
sentences  I  came  back  to  earth;  but  Watson 

145 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

stayed  after  class  was  dismissed  to  find  out  all 
I  knew. 

"One  saw  another  side  of  his  thoroughness 
in  Lorraine,  where  he  was  Platoon  Sergeant  of 
the  First  Platoon,  and  coming  late  one  night 
along  the  line  of  outposts  I  found  him  camped 
in  one  of  them.  He  told  me,  in  open  hearing  of 
the  men,  that  this  outpost  was  always  com- 
plaining of  being  sniped  at  all  night,  so  he 
was  spending  the  night  with  them  to  see  what 
it  amounted  to ;  he  thought  that  they  exagger- 
ated. He  told  me  next  day  that  they  had  ex- 
aggerated, but  probably  would  not  again,  and 
the  relation  between  morale  and  exaggeration 
works  as  cause  and  effect  in  both  directions,  so 
that  it  is  cumulative. 

"Another  instance  was  in  the  Forest  of 
Charmes  when  I  noticed  the  First  Platoon  bus- 
ily policing  the  underbrush,  while  the  rest  of 
the  Company  lay  on  their  backs  in  the  shade. 
I  asked  Watson  what  it  was  about,  and  he  told 
me  that  a  deputation  had  represented  to  him 
that  the  platoon  was  doing  more  than  its  share 
of  work,  always  a  popular  fallacy  with  all  or- 
ganizations, and  had  urged  that  he  speak  to 
me  about  it.  Instead  of  which  he  had  assem- 
bled the  platoon,  spoken  briefly  to  them,  and 
then,  deploying  them  in  skirmish-line,  had  with 

146 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

them  policed  the  entire  company  area — with 
the  result  that  the  company  area  was  clean, 
that  there  was  no  hard  feeling,  nor  any  fur- 
ther complaint  from  the  First  Platoon. 

"Well,  he  is  dead  now,  poor  fellow.  I  have 
spoken  of  him  at  such  length  first,  to  show 
what  the  best  material  of  the  draft  was  like, 
and  second,  because  I  was  fond  of  him.  But 
it  is  always  the  best  who  are  killed,  and  I  must 
get  back  on  my  stretcher,  for  I  left  myself  in 
a  place  that  was  rather  unhealthy  to  linger 
about  in.  We  stopped  again  at  the  Depot  de 
Machines,  where  was  the  main  dressing  sta- 
tion, but  it  was  also  an  important  cross-road, 
and  the  shells  were  ranging  in  on  it  rather  close. 
The  surgeon  came  out  to  me  on  the  road,  and 
I  had  the  distraction  of  watching  them  while 
he  bandaged  my  legs  and  shoulder  and  face. 
I  might  mention  that  it  was  a  rifle-grenade  that 
got  me  the  second  time,  and  it  must  have  land- 
ed nearly  at  my  feet. 

"We  went  on  up  the  tracks  in  the  gathering 
darkness,  and  it  was  interesting  to  pick  up  the 
old  familiar  landmarks  that  already  seemed 
so  remote.  The  German  blanket  and  tin  of 
bully-beef  that  I  had  thrown  away  that  same 
day,  against  my  better  judgment,  but  because 
I  had  to — they  were  still  lying  there,  but  I 

147 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

shouldn't  need  them  now;  the  log  hut  where 
Gilbert  had  been  so  suddenly  and  mysteriously 
gassed,  and  out  of  which  battalion  headquar- 
ters had  been  shelled ;  the  little  quarry  in  which 
we  had  slept  before  the  attack  on  the  Depot; 
the  cemetery  where  we  had  eaten  breakfast 
after  that  rather  awful  night,  when  I  knelt  for 
an  hour  in  the  drenching  darkness  by  poor 
H — ,  with  my  finger  on  the  pulse  in  his  throat, 
listening  to  his  slow  snuffling  breath,  and  wait- 
ing for  breathing  and  pulse  to  cease.  His 
brains  were  half  out  over  his  cheek,  and  the 
open  grave,  with  his  comrade  already  in  it,  was 
waiting  at  his  feet;  and  I  had  time  in  plenty 
to  think  how  much  it  would  mean  to  some  un- 
known woman  across  the  water  when  they  did 
cease.  After  that  the  way  was  unfamiliar  and 
utterly  dark. 

"They  must  have  carried  me  over  three 
miles,  stumbling  in  the  black  night  along  the 
railroad  ties  of  the  narrow-gauge  line,  heart- 
breaking work  for  tired  and  hungry  men ;  but 
always,  when  they  set  me  down  to  rest,  a  shell 
would  come  ranging  in,  and  one  or  the  other 
would  say:  'Well,  what  do  you  say?  We've 
got  to  get  the  captain  out  of  this.'  And  so 
the  weary  march  would  be  resumed.  Some 
machine-guns  were  firing  from  a  dark  hill-crest 

148 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

beneath  which  we  passed,  and  I  wondered 
vaguely  what  they  were  doing  so  far  behind. 
Then  we  came  to  the  near  end  of  the  relay- 
posts  and  I  bade  my  men  good-by,  wishing 
them  luck  from  my  heart  as  they  started  back 
for  the  line.  One  of  the  men  at  the  relay-post 
started  to  tell  me  how  they  had  been  carrying 
there  all  day  without  food  or  relief;  but  the 
other  cut  in  with : 

"  'Don't  tell  that  to  the  captain.  He's  not 
here  to  help  you  out.    You're  here  to  help  him.' 

"And  the  first  man  laughed  as  he  hitched  the 
slings  over  his  shoulders,  and  said : 

"  'Well,  I  guess  that's  right  enough.  We'll 
do  the  best  we  can,  sir,  and  I  guess  every  one's 
doing  that  to-day.  We  don't  have  the  worst 
of  it  here  by  a  lot.' 

"There  were  three  relays  of  perhaps  half  a 
mile  each,  but  the  shoulder-slings  made  it  eas- 
ier for  two  to  carry  me  than  it  had  been  for 
four  of  my  own  men  without  them.  Of  course, 
as  a  piece  of  furniture  I  am  rather  heavy. 
Then  we  came  to  a  flat-car  drawn  by  a  horse, 
which  had  a  way  of  stopping  short  on  the  down 
grades;  and,  as  I  overlapped  the  stretcher  by 
a  foot  or  so,  I  would  take  the  whole  impetus  of 
the  car  on  my  legs  against  the  horse's  hindquar- 
ters.    I  tried  to  persuade  the  French  driver 

149 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

that  it  wasn't  what  I  liked,  but  he  assured  me 
that  the  horse  was  tired.  It  fell  down  twice, 
so  I  imagine  that  was  true;  the  war  is  being 
fought  by  such  desperately  tired  men  and 
horses.  Three  times  the  car  ran  off  the  tracks 
into  the  ditch.  There  were  two  other  men  on 
it  beside  myself,  but  only  one  of  us  seemed  to 
be  badly  hurt  and  he  had  fainted. 

"At  last  we  came  out  into  open  country 
where  some  ambulances  were  drawn  up.  I 
had  almost  forgotten  that  there  was  anything 
but  forest  in  the  world.  The  drive  might  have 
lasted  anywhere  from  half  an  hour  to  a  week; 
it  wasn't  very  rough,  and  they  had  covered  us 
well  with  blankets,  but  not  being  able  to  change 
one's  position  came  hard  after  a  while.  I  sup- 
pose it  was  the  same  night  when  I  found  my- 
self in  a  great  cathedral.  It  stretched  away 
in  all  directions  into  the  darkness,  paved  with 
endless  stretchers,  and  the  bases  of  its  huge 
piers  lit  with  lanterns.  Above  was  darkness, 
the  vague  forms  of  Gothic  capitals  and  inter- 
lacing arches,  with  here  and  there  a  ragged 
gap  of  sky  and  the  stars  shining  through.  I 
lay  directly  beneath  the  crossing,  whose  groined 
vaulting  seemed  from  that  position  to  soar  to 
impossible  heights.  Here  and  there  groups  of 
faces  came  out  into  strong  light  and  black  sil- 

150 


SHEETS  AND  BANDAGES 

houette  about  the  lanterns  on  the  tables ;  else- 
where dim  figures  moved  to  and  fro  among  the 
crowded  stretchers.  One  had  a  feeling  of  be- 
ing part  of  some  magazine  illustration,  but  the 
cold  was  real  enough.  It  was  cold  as  death, 
and  the  stone  floor  was  wet  with  the  night  fog. 
People  kept  coming  and  asking  where  I  was 
hurt,  and  dripping  hot  candle-grease  on  my 
chin  as  they  looked  at  me,  though  they  meant 
to  be  helpful.  At  last  a  Red  Cross  man  came 
over  with  a  cup  of  hot  cocoa  and  a  doughnut, 
and  that  helped  a  lot ;  then  a  little  later  he  re- 
turned with  another  cup,  a  slab  of  chocolate, 
and  a  packet  of  cigarettes,  and  that  seemed  to 
supply  my  every  earthly  want.  He  told  me 
I  was  at  La  Chalade  Field  Hospital,  and  would 
go  on  soon  to  an  Evacuation  Hospital;  only 
the  urgent  cases  got  treatment  here. 

"So  in  due  time  on  I  went  to  a  place  where 
they  looked  through  me  with  an  X-ray,  and 
then  gave  me  ether.  I  have  always  loathed 
ether,  but  for  some  reason  I  didn't  mind  it 
then ;  and  I  drifted  from  it,  without  ever  wak- 
ing, into  twelve  hours  of  natural  sleep.  When 
I  did  wake  it  was  in  a  smooth  white  bed,  look- 
ing out  through  an  open  window  at  a  vision  of 
sunny  foliage  and  golden  evening  light,  and 
oh,  the  blessed  silence  of  the  place;  not  a  ma- 

151 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

chine-gun  to  be  heard  from  horizon  to  horizon. 
Then  I  found  a  sweet-looking  nurse  in  spot- 
less white  smiling  down  at  me,  and  asking  if 
I  were  ready  to  eat.  I  was  very  ready.  To 
sleep  and  eat,  and  sleep  again,  and  to  listen 
to  the  silence;  I  asked  nothing  better  of  life 
than  that." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

At  dawn  of  September  17th,  the  last  ele- 
ments of  the  Regiment,  after  a  long  night 
march,  reached  the  hilltop  above  l'Abbaye 
d'Igny,  and  fell  asleep  in  the  sunny  woods; 
after  dark  of  the  same  evening  the  regiment 
was  loaded  in  motor  trucks  for  the  Argonne. 
The  name  meant  nothing  then,  only  a  vast 
stretch  of  forest  where  nothing  occurred,  and 
the  regiment  little  dreamed  that  its  immediate 
task  was  to  alter  that  meaning.  It  thought  it 
was  going  to  rest.  The  St.  Mihiel  drive  had 
just  been  brought  to  brilliant  conclusion,  and 
it  was  satisfactory  to  know  that  somewhere 
things  were  going  well.  The  morale  was  good, 
but  the  troops  were  rather  discouraged,  very 
ragged,  and  utterly  tired ;  most  of  the  sergeants 
were  gone,  and  the  companies  averaged  not 
more  than  two  officers  apiece. 

153 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

The  journey  by  motor  trucks  was  unquali- 
fiedly awful.  They  were  desperately  crowded 
and  quite  innocent  of  springs,  so  that  he  who 
found  room  to  sit  felt  as  though  perched  upon 
a  cocktail  shaker;  and  it  lasted  for  sixteen 
hours.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  18th  the  troops 
were  unloaded  at  Le  Chatelier  and  Givrey, 
remaining  there  in  wooden  barracks  until  eve- 
ning of  the  19th.  That  day  came  word  that 
the  Regiment  would  move  at  night,  and  all  bag- 
gage, kitchens,  and  rations,  should  be  dragged 
to  the  cross-roads;  at  nine  P.  M.  came  word 
that  the  regiment  would  not  move,  and  all 
baggage,  etc.,  was  to  be  returned  to  billets ;  and 
at  eleven-ten  P.  M.  came  word  to  move  at 
eleven-thirty.  After  some  turmoil,  and  in  mis- 
anthropic frame  of  mind,  not  improved  by  the 
rain,  the  Regiment  started  upon  its  longest 
march  of  thirty-four  kilometers.  Toward 
dawn,  when  the  lameness  or  laziness  of  the  few 
was  giving  place  to  the  serious  exhaustion  of 
the  many,  a  staff-car  passed  the  head  of  the 
column  which  had  halted  for  a  ten-minutes 
rest;  and,  to  those  who  stood  near,  it  is  prob- 
ably one  of  the  bitterest  memories  of  the  war 

154 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

that  that  staff  or  field-officer,  whoever  he  may- 
have  been,  as  he  leaned  from  the  window  of  his 
car,  could  find  nothing  to  say  to  those  tired 
men  beyond  a  sharp  reprimand  that  they 
should  be  found  smoking  at  a  halt  in  the  rain. 
It  was  long  miles  behind  the  line,  and  the  rain 
would  effectually  prevent  any  aerial  observa- 
tion; yet  it  seemed  to  him  a  good  opportunity 
for  disciplinary  authority,  and  it  seemed  so.  to 
no  one  else. 

About  nine  A.  M.  the  battalions,  in  admit- 
tedly ragged  formation,  drew  into  Florent. 
Here  they  had  just  succeeded  in  billeting  them- 
selves and  eating  all  the  eggs  in  town,  when 
orders  came  for  the  battalion  and  company 
commanders  of  the  Second  and  Third  Battal- 
ions to  proceed  at  once  to  the  Line  of  Resist- 
ance held  by  the  French  four  kilometers  to 
the  north.  The  two  battalions  were  to  follow 
and  effect  the  relief  of  the  line  that  night.  The 
company  commanders  had  never  quite  acquired 
the  habit  of  doing  and  dying  without,  at  least 
privately,  reasoning  about  it,  and  they  now 
proceeded,  still  reasoning,  upon  their  way.  By 
midnight  relief  was  effected  of  the  rear  ele- 

155 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ments  of  the  71st  French  Division,  the  Third 
Battalion  being  placed  forward  on  the  Line 
of  Resistance  in  the  Bois  des  Hauts  Batis, 
across  the  Florent-La  Placardelle  road,  west 
and  a  little  north  of  La  Chalade,  the  Second 
Battalion  two  kilometers  farther  south  on  the 
road,  and  the  First  Battalion  just  north  of 
Florent.  The  picket-line,  which  was  in  fact 
a  line  of  resistance,  was  still  held  by  the  French 
along  the  steep  slopes  southwest  of  the  Biesme, 
opposite  the  Four  de  Paris,  as  was  also  the 
line  of  outposts,  on  the  lower  part  of  the  bleak 
ridges  across  the  river.  The  French  thus  pre- 
served a  screen  intended  to  conceal  the  arrival 
of  American  troops  in  their  rear ;  but  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  was  not  yet  apparent  to  those 
most  interested. 

September  21st  to  23rd  was  of  a  calm  which, 
it  became  increasingly  evident,  presaged  a 
storm.  An  increment  of  men  was  received 
from  the  40th  Division,  seventy-two  to  each 
company,  excellent  material,  mostly  from 
Montana  and  Nebraska,  but  largely  untrained 
and  wholly  inexperienced,  and  bringing  none 
of  its  greatly  needed  N.  C.  O.'s  with  it.  Though 

156 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

none  had  apparently  ever  seen  a  grenade,  and 
many  seemed  never  to  have  fired  a  rifle,  yet 
they  were  healthy-looking,  untired,  and  well- 
clothed,  which  was  true  of  not  many  of  the 
others.  These  men  had  in  fact  been  inducted 
into  the  service  only  three  months  before,  and 
had  spent  two  of  those  three  months  in  travel. 
They  had  at  least  no  prejudices  to  be  overcome 
and  were  used  to  taking  care  of  themselves  in 
the  open.  The  companies  were  re-squaded  and 
reorganized,  with  provisional  appointments  to 
fill  the  gaps,  but,  for  the  forward  companies 
at  least,  no  drill  or  training  could  be  attempted. 
The  region  was  thickly  wooded  and  it  was  or- 
dered that  men  should  be  kept  at  all  times  well 
hidden  in  the  woods.  They  lived,  greatly 
crowded,  in  old  log  dugouts  and  shacks;  the 
manning  of  the  Line  of  Resistance  was,  save 
for  a  few  sentry-posts,  little  more  than  an  aca- 
demic exercise  to  provide  a  basis  for  reports. 
It  was,  and  had  long  been,  a  very  quiet  sector ; 
the  dense  forest  made  movement  well-nigh  im- 
possible for  either  side,  and  the  lines  had  re- 
mained practically  unchanged  since  the  first 
autumn  of  the  war.    In  '16  a  German  attack 

157 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

had  been  flung  back  across  the  river,  since  when 
the  lines  had  been  held  with  fewer  and  fewer 
men;  and,  beyond  the  occasional  cutting  off  of 
an  outpost  at  night  or  the  perfunctory  shelling 
of  a  cross-road,  little  had  been  attempted.  It 
was  understood  that  the  German  line  was  deep- 
ly and  thoroughly  organized  with  machine-gun 
positions. 

The  French  territorial  troops,  benign  old 
men  looking  rather  like  walruses,  who  manned 
the  machine-gun  positions  of  the  Allied  Line 
of  Resistance,  and  had  done  so  apparently  for 
years,  spoke  of  the  war  as  a  background  to 
life  rather  than  as  an  occupation,  and  reckoned 
casualties  only  by  season  and  by  name.  The 
Americans  began  to  feel  encouraged  and  to 
look  forward  to  growing  old  beside  them  in  this 
pleasant  sunny  forest.  Then  on  the  24th  the 
company  commanders  were  directed  to  recon- 
noiter  the  front. 

As  seen  through  a  slot-like  aperture  in  an 
observation  post  overlooking  the  Biesme,  it 
seemed  quite  unalluring,  and  on  closer  inspec- 
tion was  even  worse.  It  was  a  bleak,  cruel 
country  of  white  clay  and  rock  and  blasted 

158 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

skeletons  of  trees,  gashed  into  innumerable 
trenches,  and  seared  with  rusted  acres  of  wire, 
rising  steeply  into  claw-like  ridges  and  de- 
scending into  haunted  ravines,  white  as  lep- 
rosy in  the  midst  of  that  green  forest,  a  country 
that  had  died  long  ago,  and  in  pain.  The  clos- 
er inspection,  made  in  the  disguise  of  French 
overcoats  and  helmets,  showed  a  single  bridge 
across  the  stream,  whose  approach-trench, 
completely  enfiladed  by  the  enemy  position, 
bore  evidence  of  direct  hits  by  artillery;  and, 
beyond  the  disused  highroad,  and  the  solitary 
ruin  of  the  Four  de  Paris,  a  labyrinth  of  ap- 
proaches and  trenches,  largely  abandoned  and 
blocked  with  wire,  debris  and  brambles.  The 
many  dugouts  were  also  largely  blocked  with 
wire  and  broken  cots,  while  their  steps,  degen- 
erated into  a  uniform  slide  of  mud,  suggested 
travel  in  but  a  single  direction  and  to  a  des- 
tination quite  unknown.  The  little  garrisons 
of  the  outposts  half  way  up  the  slopes,  already 
separated  beyond  redemption  from  their 
friends,  sought  to  achieve  a  like  isolation  from 
their  enemies  by  means  of  portcullises  of 
barbed  wire;  but  life  seemed  only  possible  in 

159 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

the  place  on  a  basis  of  live  and  let  live,  which 
was  apparently  something  of  the  basis  of  mu- 
tual agreement  then  reached. 

That  day  the  commanders  of  the  units  down 
to  and  including  companies  were  assembled  by 
the  divisional  commander  and  informed  that 
they  were  about  to  take  part  in  the  greatest 
offensive  yet  launched,  which  should  extend 
from  the  North  Sea  to  Switzerland,  and,  it  was 
hoped,  would  finish  the  war.  Of  course  it  was 
so  hoped,  but,  by  most  of  the  regiment,  with- 
out exuberant  optimism;  for  the  war,  as  last 
seen  in  and  about  Merval,  seemed  to  require 
more  finishing  than  did  the  307th  Infantry. 

Then  artillery  began  to  arrive.  All  night 
long  it  arrived,  crushing  and  clanking  through 
the  underbrush,  and  in  the  morning  the  woods 
were  filled  with  it,  concealed  under  screens  of 
new-cut  leaves.  Two  hundred  guns  were 
massed  in  the  divisional  area — the  304th  and 
305th  light  artillery,  the  306th  heavy,  and  the 
302nd  heavy  trench  mortars.  In  spite  of  pre- 
cautions the  enemy  guessed  at  attack,  though, 
as  was  later  learned,  on  no  such  scale  as  was 
being  prepared.    During  the  25th  their  artil- 

160 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

lery  fire  reached  a  volume  such  as  the  forest 
had  not  heard  in  two  years  of  its  peaceful  war- 
fare. Aeroplane  photographs  were  distribut- 
ed, and  innumerable  maps  dealing  with  a  coun- 
try visionary  leagues  to  the  northward.  Even 
clothing  was  received,  though  in  large  measure 
too  late  to  be  distributed  to  the  ragged  leading 
battalion,  and  a  vast  supply  of  unfamiliar  gren- 
ades and  pyrotechnics.  As  the  battalion  filed 
out  at  dusk  of  the  25th,  an  officer  stood  at  the 
roadside  explaining  their  various  purposes  and 
methods  of  functioning,  and  expounding,  like 
a  patent-medicine  artist  at  a  fair,  their  many 
sterling  qualities. 

"This  one  will  call  down  a  friendly  barrage 
in  your  front;  you  better  take  a  couple.  This 
one  will  indicate  your  position  to  a  passing 
aeroplane,  works  equally  well  by  day  or  night, 
every  soldier  should  have  one  (wait  till  the 
plane  circles  about  and  drops  six  white  stars). 
This  will  burn  through  flesh  and  bone  and  pro- 
vide a  high  quality  of  illumination  for  night- 
attacks  (may  be  thrown  by  hand  or  from  the 
rifle).  And  here  is  one  (with  apologies  for 
the  fact  that  it  weighs  ten  pounds)  that  will 

161 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

destroy  man  and  beast  within  a  radius  of  forty- 
yards  (pressing  it  into  the  arms  of  some  be- 
wildered soldier),"  and  so  on  till  his  voice  was 
lost  in  the  darkness. 

There  was  a  mile  of  open  road,  then  a  trench 
dipping  steeply  down  the  slope.  The  French 
captain  in  command  of  the  forward  troops,  a 
tall  splendid-looking  man,  stood  on  a  side  ter- 
race assigning  the  guides  to  the  companies  and 
half -companies,  each  on  a  separate  ridge,  "M," 
"L,"  "K,"  and  "I"  from  right  to  left.  Then 
a  clasp  of  hands,  a  cheery  "bonne  chance,"  and 
so  onward,  slipping  down  the  muddy  trench, 
over  the  silent  stream,  and  out  into  the  open 
road  beyond,  where  the  companies  split  upon 
their  different  ways. 

"Vous  allez  attaquer?"  whispered  the  guide 
at  one's  elbow,  incredulous  at  this  American 
madness,  "Ici  dans  VArgonne?"  From  Swit- 
zerland to  the  sea,  and  God  only  knew  what  it 
might  mean. 

On  the  right  of  the  regiment  moved  the  306th 
and  305th  Infantry,  and  beyond  them,  along 
the  edge  of  the  forest  the  28th  Division.  On 
the  left  was  the  308th  Infantry,  with  the  368th 

162 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

colored  Infantry,  from  the  92nd  Division,  act- 
ing as  liaison  between  the  77th  and  First 
French  Divisions.  A  word  of  explanation  may 
here  be  inserted  pointing  the  difference  be- 
tween the  meanings  of  the  words  Argonne  and 
Argonne  Forest.  The  former  refers  to  the 
whole  region  between  the  Aisne  and  the  Meuse, 
largely  open  country,  though  with  small  patch- 
es of  woods;  while  the  latter  refers  to  a  very 
dense  and  continuous  woodland  some  twelve 
kilometers  at  its  widest  point  from  east  to  west, 
and  thirty  kilometers  from  north  to  south.  The 
path  of  the  28th  Division  was  to  carry  it  free 
of  the  forest  by  the  third  day's  advance,  while 
that  of  the  77th  lay  squarely  along  its  major 
axis  from  La  Harazee  to  Grand  Pre,  where 
was  its  northern  boundary.  It  is  thus  worth 
noting  that  only  the  77th  was  to  fight  com- 
pletely and  continuously  within  the  forest,  be- 
cause, in  spite  of  this  handicap,  it  was  one  of 
the  few  divisions  that  was  not  relieved  during 
the  Argonne  campaign.  The  right  of  the 
American  sector  hinged  upon  Verdun  and  the 
whole  sector  formed  the  hinge  of  the  great 
swinging  Allied  assault.     To  use  the  oft  re- 

163 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

peated  simile:  if  the  door  could  be  blown  off 
its  hinges,  it  would  constitute  a  more  effective 
entry  into  German  territory  than  if  it  were 
merely  kicked  open. 

The  regimental  front,  forming  the  right  of 
the  brigade,  included  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Rivau  des  Courtes  Chausses  across  the  Ravin 
Intermediaire,  the  Rivau  des  Meurissons,  the 
Ravin  Sec,  the  Rivau  de  la  Fontaine  au  Mor- 
tier,  to  the  Ravin  St.  Hubert,  a  distance  of 
nearly  two  kilometers,  all  of  which  was  to  be 
spanned  by  the  front  of  the  Third  Battalion. 
The  Second  Battalion  was  to  move  in  support, 
the  First  to  remain  along  the  Biesme  in  re- 
serve. The  artillery,  after  holding  for  three 
and  a  half  hours  of  drum-fire  on  the  enemy 
lines,  was  to  advance  one  hundred  yards  in  five 
minutes  thereafter,  and  the  infantry  were  to 
keep  within  five  hundred  yards  of  their  rolling 
barrage — instructions  which  recurred  some- 
what hopelessly  to  the  leaders  of  units  during 
the  ant-like  wanderings  of  the  morrow. 

Instructions  had  been  given  for  a  very  open- 
order  advance,  and  as  the  direction  lay  due 
north,    cutting   diagonally   across   the    steep 

164 


1 


3g 

■ 


WH 


.  M 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

ridges,  it  seemed  probable  that  some  merging 
of  units  would  soon  result — an  estimate  which 
was  amply  justified  by  the  event.  It  was  hoped 
that  visual  liaison  would  be  established  by  day- 
light ;  but  it  never  was.  In  the  many  branch- 
ing trenches  squads  and  platoons  became  sep- 
arated in  the  darkness,  or  met  head-on  in  the 
narrow  way  where  no  passing  was  possible.  It 
was  never  possible  in  the  regiment  to  pass  an 
order  down  a  column  in  single  file  with  any 
hope  of  its  carrying  through — a  Polack  or  some 
limited  intellect  would  invariably  intervene 
as  a  non-conductor — and  the  French  guides 
were  on  this  occasion  unusually  poor,  even  for 
French  guides.  They  disbelieved  in  attacking 
in  the  Argonne  Forest,  and  wished  to  be  out 
of  it  before  any  such  thing  was  started.  When 
the  occupation  of  the  front  was  complete,  prob- 
ably between  one  and  two  A.  M.,  runners  were 
sent  to  report  it  to  Battalion  Headquarters; 
and  perhaps  half  of  them  succeeded  in  finding 
its  location,  but  none  succeeded  in  returning 
to  their  companies.  So  the  platoons  settled 
down,  isolated  in  the  deep  chill  dugouts  with  a 
few  sentries  posted,  awaiting  the  zero  hour, 

165 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

five-fifty,  for  their  advance.  The  following 
description  of  one  company's  advance  is  prob- 
ably typical  of  all: 

"The  bombardment  started  at  two-thirty  A. 
M.  with  a  roar  stretching  from  horizon  to  hori- 
zon, and  the  upper  air  grew  alive  with  whis- 
tling sounds;  on  the  high  ground  in  front  the 
shock  of  explosions  merged  into  one  deep  con- 
cussion that  rocked  the  walls  of  the  dugouts. 
The  night  was  thick  with  mist  and  bitterly  cold 
— a  pale  thread  of  moon  gliding  and  disap- 
pearing amidst  the  moving  vapor,  the  lurid 
glare  flickering  up  and  down  along  the  front. 
As  the  night  dragged  on  the  mist  thickened, 
wrapping  the  world  in  its  blind,  cold  blanket, 
and  blotting  out  the  last  stark  tree- stump 
ahead.  Orders  had  been  given  before  leaving 
camp  for  a  very  open-order  advance,  and 
there  was  no  chance  of  getting  word  to  the 
troops  to  change  the  formation  no  matter  what 
the  weather  was.  So  at  five-fifty  I  climbed  out 
with  the  nearest  platoon  into  darkness  and 
impenetrable  fog  mixed  with  powder-smoke, 
started  them  forward  by  compass,  and  went 
to  look,  or  feel,  for  the  others.  I  didn't  find 
them  again  until  afternoon.  Our  artillery  was 
supposed  to  have  blown  a  passage  through  the 

166 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

heaviest  wire  between  some  craters  marked 
on  the  map  near  the  head  of  the  Ravin  Sec, 
but  there  didn't  seem  much  chance  of  finding 
it  by  sense  of  touch.  The  heavy  fog  had  kept 
the  powder  smoke  down,  and  as  morning  be- 
gan to  lighten  I  found  myself,  with  my  striker 
and  two  runners,  adrift  in  a  blind  world  of 
whiteness  and  noise,  groping  over  something 
like  the  surface  of  the  moon.  One  literally 
could  not  see  two  yards,  and  everywhere  the 
ground  rose  into  bare  pinnacles  and  ridges,  or 
descended  into  bottomless  chasms,  half  filled 
with  rusted  tangles  of  wire.  Deep,  half -ruined 
trenches  appeared  without  system  or  sequence, 
usually  impossible  of  crossing,  bare  splintered 
trees,  occasional  derelict  skeletons  of  men, 
thickets  of  gorse,  and  everywhere  the  piles  of 
rusted  wire.  It  looked  as  though  it  had  taken 
root  there  among  the  iron  chevaux-de-f  rise  and 
had  grown;  and  it  was  so  heavy  that  only 
the  longest-handled  cutters  would  bite  through 
it. 

"There  seemed  to  be  very  little  rifle-fire  go- 
ing on  and  the  shelling  was  still  almost  all  in 
front  and  growing  more  distant.  I  remember 
trying  to  light  a  pipe,  but  the  tobacco  was  so 
saturated  with  powder-smoke  and  gas  that  it 
was  impossible.    At  the  end  of  an  hour's  time 

167 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

I  had  collected  two  squads  of  infantry  with  a 
few  engineers,  and  together  we  steered  on  by 
compass  over  the  seemingly  limitless  desola- 
tion. About  nine  o'clock  we  heard  voices  in  a 
draw  beside  us,  and,  taking  a  chance,  I  hailed 
them.  They  proved  to  be  a  platoon  and  a  half 
of  my  company  with  one  of  my  lieutenants, 
and  I  was  never  so  glad  to  see  any  one  in  my 
life.  In  another  hour  we  had  picked  up  the 
other  lieutenant  and  something  more  than  an- 
other platoon.  I  figured  that  we  had  gone 
nearly  a  mile  forward  without  meeting  any 
Germans  save  two  or  three  killed  by  shells ;  the 
fog  was  as  blind  as  ever,  and  we  hadn't  an 
idea  of  what  was  happening  on  the  ridges  to 
either  flank;  I  knew  we  were  too  far  to  east- 
ward but  didn't  want  to  leave  the  high  ground 
until  we  could  see  something. 

"We  had  got  beyond  the  bare  moon-country 
into  a  dense  forest  of  undergrowth,  and  were 
working  out  the  very  recently  occupied  trench- 
es and  boyaus  when,  about  noon,  the  mist  sud- 
denly rolled  up.  There  appeared  first  a  deep 
valley  to  the  west,  then  a  farther  slope  of  brush 
with  scattering  pine  trees,  the  sun  shining  on 
their  wet  tops,  and  finally  the  wooded  ridge  to 
southward  from  which  we  had  come.  Two 
contact-planes  were  flying  low  over  the  ridges 

168 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

to  the  west,  but  except  for  the  whirr  of  their 
motors  and  some  very  distant  shelling  there 
was  now  no  sound,  nor  could  I  see  any  sign  of 
other  troops.  It  was  not  one's  idea  of  a  bat- 
tle; several  of  the  men  had  already  dropped 
asleep  in  the  bushes.  In  the  opposite  slope, 
and  a  little  behind  us,  a  cul-de-sac,  with  some 
wooden  shacks  in  it  and  a  little  cemetery, 
looked  like  the  Fontaine  la  Mitte  on  the  east 
boundary  of  our  regimental  sector  and  prom- 
ised developments ;  so  we  slipped  and  slid  down 
to  the  valley  bottom  and  were  met  with  auto- 
matic rifle-fire  from  the  farther  crest.  We 
were  able  to  outflank  them  on  both  sides, 
though,  and  they  didn't  make  much  of  a  stand. 
I  told  Lieutenant  Rogers  to  try  out  our  new 
model  thermite  rifle-grenades  on  them,  but 
nothing  occurred,  and  I  didn't  discover  till 
long  afterward  that  the  detonators  came  in 
separate  boxes. 

"The  sound  of  our  rifle-fire  had  brought  up 
a  wandering  half  of  *E'  Company,  so  with 
forces  joined  we  pushed  on  into  the  thickest 
jungle  I  have  ever  seen,  and  it  seemed  to  go  on 
forever.  Then  came  a  boyau  with  some  de- 
serted machine-gun  positions — the  guns  and 
tripods  still  in  place,  and  three  or  four  sets  of 
body-armor,  a  straight  disused  road,  a  further 

169 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

jungle  almost  impenetrable,  and  a  sudden 
burst  of  rifle  and  machine-gun  fire  on  our  right 
flank.  One  man  fell  at  the  edge  of  the  road 
and  as  two  others  lifted  him  out  they  were  each 
shot,  one  of  them  through  the  heart,  and  the 
wounded  man  was  struck  again  through  the 
body.  The  map  showed  an  ominous  dark  blue 
semi-circle  on  our  right,  called  the  Tr.  de  Pri- 
lep,  and  though  we  had  almost  reached  its 
northern  end  there  was  considerable  wire  about 
it  and  apparently  a  number  of  guns,  so  that  it 
did  not  seem  wise  to  try  to  force  its  flank  with- 
out some  knowledge  of  the  rest  of  the  regi- 
ment. Afternoon  was  turning  to  clear  evening 
with  a  growing  sound  of  infantry  fire  off  to  the 
southwest,  as  we  took  up  a  position  for  the 
night,  buried  our  two  dead,  and  started  our 
wounded  back  with  a  runner  to  search  for  Bat- 
talion Headquarters  and  report  our  location. 

"Two  stray  elements  from  companies  of  the 
306th  came  up,  attracted  by  our  occasional  fire, 
and,  though  my  third  platoon  was  still  some- 
where at  large,  we  were  building  up  quite  a 
fighting  force  in  front  of  the  Tranchee  de  Pri- 
lep  (Tr.  des  Fontaines),  when  our  runner  re- 
turned with  one  from  Battalion  Headquarters 
he  had  chanced  into,  bringing  a  verbal  order 
for  me  to  report  there  with  my  company.    It 

170 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

sounded  like  a  mistake,  but  one  couldn't  risk 
refusing  it,  so  we  started  back;  and  in  a  deep 
trench,  beyond  the  Fontaine  la  Mitte,  we  ran 
into  what  looked  like  a  whole  battalion  of  the 
308th.  What  they,  who  belonged  on  our  left, 
were  doing  on  the  extreme  right  of  our  regi- 
mental sector  I  am  sure  they  couldn't  have 
told,  but  as  we  were  trying  to  crowd  past  them 
the  Boche  opened  with  whiz-bangs  directly  on 
the  spot,  getting  four  of  my  men,  so  we  didn't 
stop  to  ask. 

"By  now  it  was  black  night,  and  my  guide 
confided  the  news  that,  though  he  knew  where 
Battalion  Headquarters  was,  he  didn't  know 
how  to  get  there.  It  reminded  me  of  the  lost 
Indian  who  said:  'Indian  not  lost.  Indian 
here.  Wigwam  lost.'  Only  now  it  seemed 
probable  that  both  the  wigwam  and  the  In- 
dian were  lost,  together  with  most  of  the  tribe. 
My  conversation  with  the  guide  did  not  assist 
me  to  any  idea  of  'where  it  was,'  though  he 
still  had  confidence  in  his  knowledge  of  it ;  and 
by  one  o'clock,  in  a  fifteen-foot  trench,  with 
unscalable  walls  of  mud  and  a  stream  along  its 
bottom,  I  knew  where  nothing  was  except  the 
guide,  my  company  headquarters,  and  half  a 
platoon.  It  rained  all  night  and  we  slept  in 
the  stream." 

171 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

A  field-message  from  one  of  the  captains  of 
the  Second  Battalion  suggests  more  concisely 
something  of  the  same  story: 

"26th  September,  9:30  A.  M.  Presume  I 
am  at  295.9-270.3.  Have  touch  with  only  one 
platoon.  Am  trying  to  get  liaison  with  308th 
on  left,  also  to  the  front.  Have  just  found 
'K'  Company,  that  is,  Lieutenant  Pool  is  here 
with  nine  men.    Rest  are  lost.    Grant." 

It  was  on  the  second  day  that  a  message  was 
sent  forward  from  the  colonel  to  the  C.  O., 
Second  Battalion,  saying: 

"I  have  a  direct  order  to  reach  intermediary 
objective  today  at  95.3-74.8,  96.6-74.7." 

Pure  optimism,  be  it  most  respectfully  said. 
That  row  of  innocent-looking  figures  repre- 
sented the  ridge  beyond  the  Depot-de-Ma- 
chines,  of  which  more  hereafter,  and  the  order 
was  not,  could  not  be,  fulfilled.  There  was  in 
fact  very  little  advance  at  all  upon  that  day, 
which  was  largely  spent  in  collecting  lost  frag- 
ments and  reorganizing  for  advance  upon  the 
28th.  The  Second  and  Third  Battalions  were 
to  some  extent  merged  under  the  joint  com- 

172 


THE  FOREST  OF  ARGONNE 

mand  of  Major  M'Kinney,  who  had  very  re- 
cently joined  the  regiment,  and  of  Captain 
Blagden,  and  so  remained  during  the  succeed- 
ing days.  The  regimental  front  had  in  general 
reached  the  southern  side  of  the  Ravin  Sec 
(not  that  of  the  same  name  previously  men- 
tioned) stretching  from  the  Rivau  de  la  Fon- 
taine aux  Charmes  to  the  Tranchee  des  Fon- 
taines. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

At  dawn  of  the  28th,  the  two  battalions, 
with  "M,"  "K,"  and  T  across  the  front,  took 
up  their  slow  and  groping  progress  across  the 
ridges.  A  more  difficult  country  for  an  infan- 
try advance,  or  one  better  suited  to  delaying 
rear-guard  action,  it  would  be  hardly  possible 
to  find.  The  ridges  were  cloaked  in  a  dense 
growth  of  small  trees  and  the  bottoms  choked 
with  underbrush ;  it  was  seldom  possible  to  see 
over  twenty  yards,  often  not  five ;  the  keeping 
of  direction  and  of  contact  was  a  problem  new 
with  every  moment,  and  each  opening  through 
the  leafy  wall  was  a  death  trap.  There  was 
rifle  fire  from  across  the  narrow  valleys — it 
needed  but  a  few  men  to  do  it,  well  hidden  in 
chosen  spots,  and  looking  for  a  glimpse  of 
khaki  among  the  green,  or  the  shaking  of  bush- 
es; there  were  bursts  of  automatic-fire  down 

174 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

the  narrow  lanes — if  the  gun  had  been  sighted 
already,  the  sound  of  crashing  progress  was 
target  enough ;  there  was  the  slow  steady  drain 
of  casualties,  with  never  a  blow  to  be  struck  in 
return,  and  oh,  the  long  weary  way  those 
wounded  had  to  travel  back. 

The  Tranchee  des  Fontaines,  lying  almost 
wholly  in  the  sector  of  the  306th,  was  refused 
on  the  right,  and  it  held;  so  that  "E"  Company, 
charged  with  maintaining  liaison  with  this  or- 
ganization, cheerfully  attempted  the  impos- 
sible, and  stretched  itself  across  the  whole  dis- 
tance of  this  opening  flank.  By  nightfall  "I" 
Company,  running  into  strong  resistance  in  the 
gulch  leading  north  to  the  Depot  de  Machines, 
had  withdrawn  from  its  dead  to  a  little  quarry 
by  the  roadside;  "L"  Company,  on  the  brink 
of  the  gulch  six  hundred  yards  to  the  east,  had 
met  the  fire  of  heavy  machine-guns,  and  made 
its  midnight,  groping,  burials  in  the  rain.  The 
other  companies  lay  where  darkness  had  over- 
taken them,  ignorant  of  their  own  or  of  each 
other's  positions,  "E"  Company  stretched  out 
in  a  series  of  cossack-posts  across  the  whole 
three  kilometers  of  the  day's  advance.    It  was 

175 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

a  ghastly  night  of  uncertainty  and  sudden 
alarms,  of  bursts  of  fire  coming  from  none 
could  say  where,  of  hunger,  and  of  long,  long 
hours  of  drenching  darkness : 

"Morning  brought  a  flood  of  relief  and  of 
thrice  welcome  sunshine.  We  had  lost  all  con- 
tact about  sundown,  when  a  sudden  burst  of 
shelling  close  on  our  rear  had  hurried  us  for- 
ward; our  patrols  at  dusk  down  the  valleys  to 
southeast  and  northeast  had  found  nothing  but 
sniping  and  machine-gun  fire,  and  the  fire 
which!  had  struck  the  head  of  our  company 
came  from  the  west.  We  had  passed  the  night 
with  outposts  to  every  point  of  the  compass, 
believing  ourselves  alone  in  the  wilderness,  but 
with  the  first  hour  of  daylight  we  found  four 
other  companies  within  a  radius  of  as  many 
hundred  yards.  Then  came  word  of  rations 
somewhere  down  the  narrow-gauge  line  by 
the  Pavillion  de  Bagatelle,  the  first,  save  what 
we  had  carried,  for  three  days  and  four  nights. 
By  dint  of  struggle  we  got  ten  sacks,  and,  as 
the  company  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  support 
line,  withdrew  some  five  hundred  yards  to  the 
little  high-walled  German  cemetery.  Its  en- 
closure was  a  glorious  oasis  of  flowers — roses, 
blue  larkspur,  yellow  and  white  blossoming 

176 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

shrubbery — and  we  sat  in  sunshine  on  the  brick 
walks  amidst  rain-drenched  grassy  graves  and 
flowers,  and  ate,  and  smoked,  and  felt  again 
the  joy  of  living.  Whatever  had  been  or  was 
to  come,  here  at  least  was  peace  and  beauty, 
sunshine  and  food." 

On  the  29th,  little  or  no  progress  was  made, 
save  on  the  right  where  "E"  Company, 
stretched  far  beyond  the  breaking  point,  had 
abandoned  the  open  flank  and  pushed  to  the 
front,  across  the  head  of  the  east  and  west  val- 
ley,  to  the  cross-roads  southeast  of  Les  Quatre 
Chenes.  Here,  with  "M"  and  "H"  in  support, 
it  lay  face  to  face  with  a  group  of  machine-gun 
nests,  which  it  had  tried  in  vain  to  outflank 
from  either  side.  The  Machine-Gun  Company 
gave  supporting  indirect  fire  from  behind  the 
Fontaine-aux-Batons,  their  bullets  clearing 
the  heads  of  "M"  Company  by  a  margin  of 
some  fifteen  feet  and  spattering  along  the  road 
in  their  front.  It  was  an  example  of  extreme 
efficiency  in  fire,  but  was  yet  not  enough  to 
overcome  the  enemy  resistance.  The  German 
efficiency  was  shown  by  a  direct  artillery  hit 
upon  one  of  the  American  machine-guns. 

177 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

On  the  left,  the  308th  reported  their  forward 
battalion  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  cross-roads 
northeast  of  the  Boyau  des  Cuistots ;  but  it  was 
cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  regiment,  their 
Lieutenant-Colonel  being  killed  by  machine- 
gun  fire  in  an  effort  to  join  it.  The  whole 
slope  of  timber  south  and  southwest  from  the 
Depot  de  Machines  seemed  to  be  filled  with 
machine-guns,  and  the  long  east  and  west  ridge 
to  the  north  of  it  was  lined  with  them.  The 
two  combined  battalions  of  the  307th  faced 
north  and  west  upon  these  two  fronts  with  their 
right  flank  neglected  and  open,  and  with  for- 
ward battalion  headquarters,  as  usual  upon  the 
outpost  line,  in  a  log  hut  halfway  between  the 
cemetery  and  the  Depot,  its  open  door  facing 
the  fire. 

From  the  left  came  the  sound  of  "I"  Com- 
pany's chauchat  teams,  trying  in  vain  to  force 
the  slope,  and  their  casualties  came  back  in  a 
slow  but  steady  stream;  in  the  northeast  was 
the  sound  of  something  like  a  pitched  battle 
round  Les  Quatre  Chenes,  a  message  from  the 
lieutenant  in  command  of  "E"  reporting  cheer- 
fully that  he  was  in  close  touch  with  the  enemy; 

178 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

a  German  plane  passed  over,  skimming  the 
tree-tops,  and  then  their  artillery  opened. 
With  uncanny  intelligence  it  searched  the  slope 
for  the  log  hut,  whose  walls  shook  with  each 
nearing  explosion,  and  they  were  not  such  walls 
as  one  would  have  chosen  for  the  occasion.  As 
one  spoke,  every  sentence  was  cut  in  half  by  the 
incoming  shriek  and  crash.  Out  on  the  plateau 
to  eastward  there  spread  a  thick  blanket  of 
smoke,  lit  toward  evening  by  the  red  flare  of 
explosions,  and  through  which  dim  figures  of 
men  loomed  and  disappeared  as  the  support- 
ing companies  were  withdrawn  in  search  of 
shelter.  Night  brought  a  slackening  of  fire, 
but  no  change  in  the  situation. 

By  afternoon  of  the  30th,  it  was  evident  that 
the  enemy  position  was  being  evacuated,  and 
the  two  battalions  were  deployed  in  double 
line  for  a  concerted  assault  behind  half  an 
hour's  artillery  preparation.  This  artillery 
preparation  had  frankly  become  a  thing  to 
dread.  There  was  no  direct  observation  of  their 
fire,  due  to  the  blind  character  of  the  country 
and  the  still  apparent  lack  of  aeroplanes;  nor 
was  there  any  direct  communication  from  the 

179 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

infantry  units  to  the  batteries.  If  a  platoon 
or  company  were  suffering  from  the  fire  of 
their  own  guns,  they  could  send  a  runner  with 
a  message  to  that  effect  to  Battalion  Head- 
quarters, perhaps  half  a  mile  or  more  distant 
through  the  woods;  and  Battalion  Headquar- 
ters, if  their  wires  had  not  been  blown  out, 
would  communicate  with  regimental  headquar- 
ters, who  in  turn  would  take  it  up  with  the  ar- 
tillery ;  and  the  artillery  would  quite  likely  re- 
ply that  the  infantry  were  mistaking  enemy 
fire  for  their  own.  Of  course,  a  more  reason- 
able course  for  the  infantry  unit  was  to  move 
out,  provided  that  this  could  be  done.  But 
what  was  also  probably  a  fruitful  cause  of 
trouble  was  an  almost  criminal  inexactness  on 
the  part  of  very  many  infantry  officers  in  map 
reading.  The  terrain  was  undoubtedly  diffi- 
cult for  the  attainment  of  this  exactness  and 
of  certainty;  but  that  alone  would  not  suffi- 
ciently account  for  the  mistakes  made.  It  was 
the  one  salient  point  on  which  the  training  of 
infantry  officers  was  found  to  be  deficient. 
Many  a  company  commander  or  liaison  officer 
was  entirely  capable  of  waving  a  vague  finger 

180 


i 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

over  a  valley  marked  on  the  map,  while  stat- 
ing that  the  troops  in  question  were  "on  that 
hill";  and,  if  pressed  to  be  more  precise,  he 
would  give  as  their  coordinates  figures  which 
represented  a  point  neither  in  the  valley  to 
which  he  was  pointing  nor  on  the  hill  on  which 
they  were.  Another  technical  difficulty  which 
may  or  may  not  have  led  to  misunderstanding, 
but  which  certainly  seems  capable  of  doing  so, 
was  that  infantry  and  artillery  officers  were 
actually  taught  quite  dissimilar  methods  of 
representing  a  given  point  on  the  map  by  co- 
ordinates. 

Be  all  this  as  it  may,  at  four  P.  M.  of  Sep- 
tember 30th  it  was  known  to  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  officers  just  where  the  barrage  line  was 
to  fall;  and  there  the  greater  part  of  it  fell, 
but  not  all.  A  company  of  the  second  line  had 
just  posted  its  right  platoon  with  its  head  rest- 
ing on  a  group  of  birch  trees,  when  the  bar- 
rage came  down  three  hundred  yards  in  front, 
all  save  one  gun,  which  made  hit  after  hit  on 
the  birch  trees.  The  platoon  recoiled,  shaken 
and  lacking  its  sergeant,  and  the  gun  ranged 
forward  into  the  center  of  the  front  line  com- 

181 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

pany.  "E"  Company,  still  playing  out  of 
luck,  received  no  word  of  the  coming  barrage, 
which  fell  entirely  behind  it,  so  that  it  was, 
for  the  time  being,  surrounded  on  three  sides 
by  enemy  machine-guns  and  on  the  fourth  by 
its  own  artillery  fire. 

When  the  artillery  ceased,  and  the  infantry 
went  forward,  the  enemy  position  was  found 
to  have  been  abandoned,  but  abandoned  with  a 
haste  which  had  found  no  time  for  the  removal 
of  all  the  machine-guns  from  the  farther  crest, 
nor  of  the  large  stores  of  material  along  the 
railroad.  Some  of  this  had  been  loaded  on 
hand-cars  and  these  left  upon  the  rails,  while  a 
few  prisoners  were  captured  of  those  who  had 
too  long  delayed  their  withdrawal.  Undoubt- 
edly, for  all  its  damage  inflicted,  the  artillery 
had  saved  the  infantry  from  far  heavier  loss 
at  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  left  of  the 
Regiment  had  reached  and  passed  the  Depot 
de  Machines;  beyond  it  the  308th  was  also  in 
position  across  the  valley;  and,  although  the 
right  of  the  Regiment  was  still  in  the  air,  at  a 
farther  point  the  305th  had  gained  consider- 
able ground.    For  some  in  the  support  com- 

182 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

panies  it  was  a  night  of  strange  luxury  in  the 
German  bungalows,  with  their  elaborate  white- 
birch  balconies,  and  their  comfort  of  cots, 
blankets,  and  stoves,  of  strange  pink  bread, 
tasting  of  malt,  and  of  apple  jam. 

At  early  dawn  of  October  1st,  the  advance 
was  resumed,  though  now  leading  to  the  west 
of  north,  and  with  the  right  flank  as  open  as 
the  sea.  On  the  left  of  the  brigade  the  activi- 
ties of  the  368th  were  said  to  have  produced 
somewhat  the  same  situation  there.  There  was 
the  usual  rear-guard  delaying  action,  and  by 
evening,  after  one  and  a  half  kilometer's  slow 
advance,  the  leading  elements  had  encountered 
another  position  of  organized  resistance  along 
the  ridge  south  of  the  Bois  de  la  Buironne. 
It  was  fronted  with  strong  wire  and  heavy 
machine-guns,  and  was  not  attacked  in  force 
on  that  day.  The  attack  of  the  next  day  can 
perhaps  best  be  typified  at  first  hand. 

"Our  company  lay  in  right  support  across 
the  road  north  of  Les  4  Chenes,  facing  what 
was  actually  a  No  Man's  Land  to  the  north- 
east. There  had  been  during  the  evening  some 
Stokes'  mortar  preparation  on  a  position  in 

183 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

front,  and  the  companies  had  all  been  some- 
what withdrawn  for  it,  though  it  had  produced 
no  noticeable  effect.  At  three  A.  M.  Captain 
Blagden  came  into  the  old  German  dugout 
where  I  had  been  sleeping  to  tell  me  that  we 
were  to  attack  behind  a  rolling  barrage  on  the 
left  front  at  six,  and  I  remember  that  my  teeth 
were  chattering  so  with  cold  that  I  could 
hardly  answer  him.  A  ration  party  brought 
up  some  stew  and  coffee  from  the  Depot  be- 
fore we  started,  but  not  enough  for  every  man 
to  have  some  of  both.  They  rose,  shaking  with 
cold,  from  the  half-frozen  mud  of  an  old 
trench  and  stumbled  numbly  forward  through 
a  forest  white  with  frost.  There  was  a  blind 
kilometer  to  go  through  darkness  and  dense 
undergrowth  to  our  appointed  position  on  the 
line  of  the  coming  barrage,  and  little  enough 
chance  for  checking  up  on  that  position,  for  we 
met  no  other  troops.  It  was  as  ticklish  a  piece 
of  map  memorizing  and  topography  reading  as 
one  would  wish ;  after  which  we  waited  for  the 
artillery  to  tell  us  if  I  had  guessed  it  right.  It 
was  a  relief  when  the  first  shells  pitched  in  a 
hundred  yards  ahead.  We  crossed  a  flat  ridge 
of  open  timber,  whose  leaves  had  all  turned 
yellow  over  night,  the  sunrise  gilding  the  tree- 
tops.    Our  artillery  was  enough  to  encourage 

184 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

an  advance,  but  certainly  not  to  destroy  any 
wire ;  from  somewhere  in  front  came  occasional 
bursts  of  machine-gun  fire  and  the  sound  of 
bullets  striking  the  tree-trunks  around  us. 
Then  came  a  down-slope  of  thick  brush  to  a 
muddy  ravine  running  off  to  the  left,  and  a 
farther  steep  slope  with  wire.  The  shelling 
seemed  not  to  have  touched  it  at  all;  but 
neither,  fortunately,  was  it  swept  by  the  enemy 
fire  which  all  passed  overhead.  We  were  cut- 
ting our  way  rather  cautiously  through  this 
when  we  met  with  'H'  Company  on  higher 
ground  to  our  right,  and  knew  that  we  were 
with  the  Battalion  again.  Beyond  their  right 
'E'  Company  was  almost  abreast,  though  we 
did  not  then  know  it,  for  the  north  and  south 
wagon  road  between  was  swept  by  a  machine- 
gun  fire  which  prevented  any  efforts  at  com- 
munication. A  message  at  this  time  from  its 
CO.  is  fairly  graphic: 

"295.95-275.45.  Am  on  this  line  and  Boche 
is  putting  minnenwerfers  on  us.  M.G.'s  still 
in  position  and  one  is  at  bend  of  road  ahead. 
Have  tried  to  flank  him  every  way,  but  he  is 
covered  by  other  guns  and  it  is  hard  to  see  in 
this  brush.  Can't  locate  guns  close  enough  to 
get  them  with  Stokes  and  think  artillery  had 

185 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

better  be  put  on  them.  But  if  so  let  us  know 
in  time  to  withdraw,  as  it  has  a  habit  of  hit- 
ting us." 


The  other  companies  had  been  last  heard  of 
near  the  horse-shed  that  served  as  Battalion 
Headquarters,  and  of  what  they  might  have 
done  since  then  we  knew  nothing.  Some  of  the 
enemy  fire  seemed  to  come  from  overhead 
among  the  big  beech  trees  in  front,  but  most 
of  their  machine-guns  were  apparently  to  the 
right  and  had  effectively  prevented  any  cutting 
of  the  wire  there.  The  sniping  was  rather  se- 
rious so  that,  to  reduce  casualties,  I  moved  my 
first  and  second  platoons  back  across  the  ridge 
into  support,  and  put  the  others  into  a  narrow 
trench  beyond  the  wire. 

A  runner  came  over  from  the  308th,  some- 
where on  our  left,  having  had  to  circle  far  back 
to  reach  us,  and  I  was  trying  to  find  out  from 
him,  on  a  map  which  he  didn't  understand, 
where  they  were,  when  we  got  an  order  to  at- 
tack. A  barrage  would  open  at  twelve-ten  and 
play  for  twenty  minutes  on  the  ridge  in  front, 
after  which  all  front-line  companies  would  as- 

186 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

sault  together,  and  the  308th  would  assault  si- 
multaneously on  our  left.  If  only  one  could 
believe  it !  There  seemed  not  a  chance  that  the 
artillery  would  destroy  the  wire  before  our  cen- 
ter and  right,  without  which  neither  "H"  nor 
"E"  could  advance;  the  runner  from  the  308th 
shared  my  doubts  that  his  regiment  expected 
any  immediate  move;  the  support  companies, 
and  we  did  not  know  what  their  orders  were, 
were  beyond  the  ridge  half  a  mile  to  the  rear, 
and  two  of  my  platoons  with  them;  it  was  al- 
ready after  twelve.  I  sent  back  a  runner,  a 
red-headed  Irishman  named  Patrick  Gilligan, 
to  hurry  forward  my  rear  platoons,  and  had 
just  gotten  word  to  the  others  to  be  ready  for 
an  instant  advance  in  open  order,  when  the 
shelling  started.  Nothing  semed  to  be  falling 
short,  but  it  was  all  beyond  the  wire  of  the 
center  and  right,  and  we  moved  forward  from 
our  trench  to  the  edge  of  the  barrage  line,  a 
brigade  attack  consisting  of  two  lonely  pla- 
toons. I  was  thinking  of  the  letter  of  a  would- 
be  suicide  once  published  in  the  papers  ending: 
"Good-by,  old  world,  good-by,"  and  I  won- 
dered whether  my  men  realized  what  they  were 

187 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

up  against.  The  barrage  was  stunning  to 
watch  for  those  twenty  minutes,  there  within 
forty  yards  of  it — the  thick  smoke  among  the 
leaves,  the  black  fountains  of  earth,  and  the 
great  yellow  trees  crashing  down  in  front. 
Then  it  ceased,  and  at  once  the  whole  forest 
began  to  echo  with  a  sound  like  a  hundred 
pneumatic  riveters  at  work.  We  moved  for- 
ward into  a  close  wall  of  foliage,  combed  and 
re-combed  by  the  traversing  bullets,  and  we 
fired  blindly  into  the  leaves  as  we  went.  The 
noise  was  deafening,  and  I  could  hear  "H" 
and  "E"  going  into  action  on  our  right  rear, 
but  nothing  from  the  left.  Then  Gilligan  came 
up  with  the  other  two  platoons  and  saluted 
with  a  grin.  I  told  him  that  I  had  thought  he 
was  lost  or  headed  home,  though  in  reality  I 
didn't  see  how  they  had  come  so  quickly  nor 
found  me  so  directly. 

"Never  fear,  Captain,"  he  answered,  "and 
praise  God  it's  here  that  we  are  and  in  time 
for  it  all,  and  yourself  so  safe."  And  even  as 
he  spoke  he  was  down  with  a  bullet  through 
the  brain.    I  think  he  was  the  first  to  be  killed. 

We  were  now  on  the  broad  top  of  the  ridge 
188 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

and  were  beginning  a  turning  movement  to 
the  right  in  the  hope  of  rolling  up  the  enemy 
line  from  west  to  east,  if  only  the  rest  of  the 
battalion  front  could  do  something  through 
their  wire.  I  sent  Lieutenant  Rogers  with 
the  two  new  platoons  to  extend  our  left  in 
search  of  the  308th,  wherever  they  might  be, 
and  to  carry  on  the  enveloping  movement.  We 
were  facing  now  nearly  east  in  a  wide  curve, 
and  it  became  increasingly  hard  to  preserve  di- 
rection. When  I  reached  the  extreme  left  of 
the  line  I  found  it  well  over  the  farther  slope 
and  firing  dangerously  close  to  our  right ;  but 
as  I  took  a  man  by  the  shoulders  to  change  his 
aim,  he  caught  a  message  from  the  man  beside 
him  and  passed  it  on:  "Fire  more  to  the 
right." 

Later  I  found  that  the  message  had  been 
started  by  the  lieutenant  with  the  right  pla- 
toon to  prevent  its  firing  on  our  left,  and  is 
the  only  instance  I  know  of  a  verbal  message 
passed  successfully  and  without  change  down 
a  whole  company — which  it  was  never  meant 
to  do. 

We  were  widely  through  the  enemy  line,  but 
189 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

with  our  left  and  rear  open  to  the  whole  of 
Germany;  yet,  if  we  had  only  known,  that 
left  was  within  four  hundred  yards  of  the  po- 
sition taken  up  that  evening  by  the  "Surround- 
ed Battalion"  of  the  308th,  which  had  not  yet 
made  its  historic  advance.  There  seemed  no 
longer  anything  to  prevent  the  progress  of 
our  left  to  the  north,  an  opportunity  which  it 
then  appeared  useless  madness  to  seize,  but  for 
which,  later,  scores  of  lives  were  sacrificed. 
The  position  we  were  attacking  lay  to  the  east, 
and  already  we  were  completely  separated 
from  our  battalion.  So  to  the  east  our  left 
swung,  broke  through  a  narrow  belt  of  wire, 
and  came  face  to  face  with  the  first  of  the  en- 
emy— a  huddled  group  of  fifteen  men  with  four 
light  machine-guns,  who  had  been  driven  from 
position  by  the  artillery  barrage  and  startled 
into  surrender  by  the  sudden  appearance  of 
our  men.  They  were  sent  to  the  rear  with  a 
guard  of  four,  and  I  had  moved  back  to  our 
center  when  there  came  a  hoarse  shouting  from 
in  front,  and  cries  of  "Kamerad,  hommen  Sie 
hier"  My  best  sergeant,  an  Englishman,  was 
starting  toward  them,  where  we  could  see  their 

190 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

helmets  among  the  leaves,  and  I  shouted  to 
him  to  stay  where  he  was  and  shoot. 

"It's  all  right,  sir,"  he  answered,  turning. 
"They're  most  hanxious  to  surrender;"  and 
then  pitched  forward  on  his  face,  and  I  emp- 
tied my  pistol  over  him  with,  I  hope,  some  ef- 
fect. Three  other  Germans  came  out  on  the 
left,  empty-handed  and  calling:  "Kommen  Sie 
hier"  then  dropped  to  the  ground  as  a  ma- 
chine-gun opened  fire  above  them.  Some  one 
was  shooting  at  them,  but  I  don't  know  with 
what  result.  I  went  over  to  the  sergeant,  who 
was  bleeding,  but  not  very  fast,  from  a  wound 
in  the  thigh.  He  asked  for  a  drink  of  water 
and  died  as  I  gave  it  to  him;  I  never  knew 
why.  A  new  machine-gun  had  opened  down 
a  narrow  lane  ahead,  showing  a  close  wake  of 
bullets  through  the  long  grass,  and  listening  to 
the  right  front  I  found  that  from  the  rest  of 
the  battalion  the  fire  had  ceased.  We  had 
broken  their  line  but  we  seemed  to  be  facing 
them  alone,  and  there  might  be  heavy  wire  in 
front.  A  further  advance  would  mean  a  sweep- 
ing victory  or  annihilation.  We  desperately 
wanted  support  for  our  flank  and  rear.     I 

191 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

reached  for  the  message  book  in  my  pocket, 
and,  as  I  did  so,  caught  sight  of  some  more  hel- 
mets moving  across  our  front  from  left  to 
right.  At  first  I  thought  it  was  our  left  pla- 
toon that  had  lost  direction,  till  one  showed  its 
steep  German  sides,  and  then  I  forgot  the 
message  book. 

At  about  that  time  a  runner  brought  me  a 
written  order  to  withdraw  and  prepare  to  re- 
ceive a  counter-attack,  and  so  that  ended  it; 
though  it  took  nearly  an  hour,  beginning  at  the 
left,  to  roll  up  and  collect  our  whole  line.  The 
fourth  platoon  on  the  right  we  never  did  find, 
though  the  lieutenant  and  I  walked  over  the 
ground  on  which  we  had  left  it  shouting  our- 
selves hoarse ;  so  we  concluded  it  had  dropped 
back  down  the  slope  to  the  left,  and  two  hours 
later  its  runner  reported  to  me  at  the  mouth 
of  our  old  dugout  to  ask  whether  it  was  to  dig 
in  where  it  was,  a  few  rods  forward  of  where 
we  had  been  and  alone  in  Germany. 

Neither  "H"  nor  "E"  had  succeeded  in  pen- 
etrating the  wire  in  their  fronts,  though  the 
latter  had  lost  some  half-dozen  men  in  the  at- 
tempt.   "H"  and  "L"  each  lost  over  twenty. 

192 


THE  DEPOT  DE  MACHINES 

Due  to  the  complete  lack  of  warning,  the  sup- 
port companies,  which,  if  thrown  in  behind 
"L,"  might  well  have  turned  the  scale  to  vic- 
tory and  saved  the  five  subsequent  days  of 
bloody  struggle  for  that  ground,  did  not  ar- 
rive until  the  attack  and  withdrawal  had  been 
completed,  and  some  of  them  not  until  dark. 
By  dint  of  dropping  back  half  a  kilometer  to 
cross  the  wagon  road,  "E"  now  came  up  on  the 
right  of  "H."  These  companies  were  suffi- 
ciently protected  from  surprise  by  the  wire  in 
their  front,  and  on  the  left,  "L,"  in  the  trench 
beyond  the  wire,  threw  forward  sentry- squads 
into  the  brush ;  but  no  counter-attack  was  de- 
livered. 

Through  the  night  there  were  sounds  of  ac- 
tivity upon  the  ridge,  though  the  companies  on 
the  line,  knowing  nothing  of  the  advance  of 
the  308th,  accomplished  that  evening  along  the 
ravine  to  their  left,  could  not  guess  that  they 
listened  to  the  closing  of  the  gate  behind  them. 
With  the  morning  a  field-gun  went  into  action 
on  the  ridge  at  some  three  hundred  yards'  dis- 
tance, searching  the  slope  behind  the  line  with 
direct  fire  and  bursting  its  overhead  H.  E. 

193 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

above  the  lip  of  the  trench.  In  that  trench, 
shoulder  deep  and  too  narrow  to  admit  of  pass- 
ing, the  bursts  of  four  shells  caused  casualties 
to  men  lying  prone  along  its  bottom ;  and  even 
for  those  who  were  not  struck  the  sound  of  its 
point-blank  discharges  was  unnerving.  A  car- 
rying detail  started  back  for  ammunition,  and, 
though  they  had  been  warned  to  keep  off  the 
trail  behind  the  solitary  dugout,  they  had 
scarcely  started  before  there  came  a  burst  of 
machine-gun  fire  and  then  a  calling  for  help. 
Five  were  down;  and  as  a  lieutenant  reached 
out  from  the  bushes  to  pull  one  back  under 
cover  a  bullet  broke  the  skin  across  his  knuck- 
les and  another  cut  from  side  to  side  through 
the  gas-mask  strapped  to  his  chest.  The  day 
was  spent  in  opening  covered  routes  of  com- 
munication and  in  attempting  more  exactly  to 
locate  the  machine-gun  positions.  At  dusk  a 
relief  of  the  front  was  made  by  the  supporting 
companies,  and,  though  this  coincided  with  a 
suddenly  increased  activity  of  enemy  artillery 
upon  the  line,  there  was  no  further  immediate 
loss. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

The  night  of  October  3rd  saw  the  Second 
and  Third  Battalions  widely  scattered.  "L" 
dropped  back  into  battalion  support  on  the 
right  to  find  evidence  of  enemy  occupation  of 
that  ground  since  their  departure  before  dawn 
of  the  second.  There  was  sniping  fire  all  down 
that  flank  during  the  night,  a  light  machine- 
gun  raking  the  road  before  the  battalion  head- 
quarters' horse  shed,  and  sounds  as  of  a  pitched 
battle  off  to  the  right  rear,  where  the  153rd 
seemed  to  be  in  difficulties. 

The  amount  of  enemy  initiative  and  efficien- 
cy displayed  by  this  infiltration  of  small  groups 
of  light  machine-gunners  and  snipers,  appar- 
ently independent  of  officers,  into  the  gap  be- 
tween the  two  brigades,  is  worthy  of  note  and 
considerable  admiration.  In  the  opinion  of 
the  writer  it  is  doubtful  whether  many  of  the 

195 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

American  troops,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been 
written  about  their  acquiring  the  art  and  skill 
of  the  Red  Indian  in  forest  warfare,  could 
have  been  counted  on  to  do  as  well. 

For  the  discovery  of  a  gap  in  a  hostile  line, 
the  percolation  through  it,  in  small  and  isolated 
groups,  to  a  depth  of  over  a  kilometer,  harass- 
ing an  open  flank  while  the  harassing  is  good, 
and  then  at  the  last  moment  skillfully  with- 
drawing to  one's  own  lines,  all  represent  a 
grasp  of  the  general  situation,  a  knowledge  of 
the  terrain,  and  a  self-confidence  of  individuals 
which  are  not  easily  come  by. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  disposition  of  the 
companies.  "M,"  together  with  "I"  and  "F" 
combined,  had  been  ordered  up  in  support  of 
the  attack  of  October  2nd,  but  had  arrived  too 
late — "M"  shortly  after  the  withdrawal,  but 
"I"  and  "F,"  guided  into  a  maze  of  wire  down 
the  slope  to  the  west,  never  reaching  the  ground 
at  all.  They  returned  to  Battalion  Headquar- 
ters after  midnight  and  were  directed,  after 
getting  a  hot  meal  at  the  company  kitchens 
near  the  Depot  de  Machines,  to  proceed  two 
and  a  half  kilometers  up  the  railroad  track  of 

196 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

the  north  and  south  valley,  and  to  extend  the 
right  of  a  position  in  the  cross  valley,  east  of 
the  Moulin  de  Charlevaux,  just  taken  up  by 
five  companies  of  the  308th.  Starting  again 
about  three  A.  M«  of  the  third,  they  met  "M" 
Company,  ordered  on  the  same  mission,  in  one 
of  the  side  valleys  to  the  right,  and  together 
they  pushed  on. 

"K"  Company,  advancing  before  them,  had 
been  guided  up  the  line  of  the  308th  runner- 
posts  across  the  western  foot  of  the  ridge,  and 
was  already  in  position  on  the  right  of  that 
now  famous  ground;  but  "I"  and  "M,"  pro- 
ceeding without  guides  up  the  railroad  tracks 
to  the  left  of  the  stream,  and  never  finding  the 
line  of  runner-posts,  which  had  perhaps  already 
ceased  to  exist,  were  met  at  gray  dawn  with  a 
sweeping  fire  from  the  open  mouth  of  the  val- 
ley, and  recoiled  for  shelter  into  a  side  draw  to 
the  right.  The  door  was  closed  which  it  should 
nearly  wreck  the  brigade  to  reopen. 

The  First  Battalion  had,  on  the  night  of  the 
third,  taken  over  the  front,  and  by  noon  of 
the  fourth  "E,"  "G,"  "H,"  and  "L"  were 
grouped  in  Divisional  Reserve  about  the  De- 

197 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

pot  de  Machines.  They  had  had  one  splendid 
cooked  meal,  the  first  in  nine  days,  and  were 
for  the  most  part  washing  in  the  muddy  little 
stream  and  removing  the  surplus  population  of 
their  clothes,  when  orders  came  for  them  to  re- 
port for  duty  to  the  Colonel  of  the  308th  north 
along  the  railroad.  By  three  o'clock  they  were 
massed  along  the  draw  running  east  from  the 
Moulin  de  l'Homme  Mort,  and  half  an  hour 
later  "G"  and  "L"  were  launched  in  assault 
up  the  north  valley.  Somewhere  in  front  a 
battalion  of  the  308th  was  cut  off,  but  few  if 
any  of  the  company  commanders  knew  where. 
"G"  advanced  with  a  platoon  in  skipnish  line 
through  the  swamp  along  the  line  of  the  stream, 
"L"  a  little  to  the  rear  along  the  tracks.  So 
they  pased  the  more  open  part  of  the  valley  to 
where  it  narrows  and  bends  farther  to  the 
north ;  they  came  under  a  fire  from  both  flanks 
and  the  front,  and  they  looked  at  the  work  be- 
fore them — a  steep  and  narrow  ravine,  its  sides 
choked  with  brush  and  wire,  the  crests  to  right 
and  left  held  with  machine-guns,  rifle-  and 
hand-grenades,  a  long-distance  machine-gun 
fire  sweeping  down  its  length  from  the  north, 

198 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

and  the  first  ranging  shells  wailing  in  from 
across  the  hills.  Roncesvalles  or  Thermopylae 
may  have  looked  so  to  their  assaulting  columns, 


grim  in  the  sunset  light;  and  the  thought  rose 
unbidden  to  the  mind — what  a  place  chosen  for 
men  to  die. 

"G"  halted  under  fire  across  the  swamp,  and 
199 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

"L,"  as  directed  by  Colonel  Stacey  of  the 
308th,  assaulted  the  heights  to  the  left  under 
a  fire  from  their  front,  right,  and  rear.  There 
was  no  artillery  preparation  other  than  of 
counter-battery  fire.  By  dusk  they  had 
reached  the  crest  of  the  plateau,  but  with  the 
loss  of  the  battalion  commander,  all  three  of 
their  company  officers,  and  an  unknown  num- 
ber of  their  men.  Lieutenant  Rogers,  the  last 
of  the  three  to  be  hit,  had  crawled  forward 
alone  some  two  hundred  yards  along  a  shallow 
ditch,  in  an  effort  to  locate  the  enemy  machine- 
guns,  and  in  so  doing  had  passed  over  the  bod- 
ies of  two  others  who  had  apparently  died  in 
the  same  endeavor.  Within  thirty  yards  of  a 
machine-gun  in  action  his  knee  was  half  shot 
away  by  a  sniper  even  nearer  to  himself;  and 
under  this  point-blank  fire  he  managed  to  free 
himself  from  his  pack,  get  a  tourniquet  on  his 
leg,  and  crawl  backward  to  the  company,  which 
he  outposted  and  put  in  position  for  defense. 
A  lieutenant  from  the  308th  was  then  put  in 
command  of  the  company,  but  was  in  turn 
wounded  by  morning.  Captain  Grant  of  "H" 
Company,  being  after  the  first  half -hour  the 

200 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

senior  officer  left  in  the  battalion,  started  for- 
ward to  assume  command  of  it,  but,  before 
reaching  the  front,  was  killed  upon  the  railroad 
track  by  a  shell,  which  also  mortally  wounded 
his  only  lieutenant.  Lieutenant  Jenkins,  in 
command  of  "E"  Company,  found  himself  also 
in  command  of  the  Second  Battalion,  and  al- 
most its  only  officer,  together  with,  at  least  tem- 
porarily, such  elements  of  the  308th  as  were  on 
that  ground.  A  precarious  footing  had  been 
gained  on  the  edge  of  the  western  plateau,  fac- 
ing a  strong  line  of  wire  and  trenches  to  the 
north,  and  almost  all  available  reserves  had 
been  already  engaged.  During  the  night  the 
troops  huddled  into  such  shelter  as  they  could 
find,  while  the  enemy  artillery  blasted  the  val- 
ley from  end  to  end. 

Toward  noon  of  October  5th  the  brigade 
commander,  coming  up  on  the  ground,  found 
the  troops  withdrawing  from  a  seemingly  hope- 
less position  upon  the  left,  and  ordered  another 
general  assault  along  both  sides  of  the  valley. 
The  companies  and  battalions  were  by  now 
thinned  and  merged  beyond  definition.  New 
lieutenants,  coming  up  from  the  rear  as  re- 

201 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

placements,  were  put  in  charge  of  whatever 
elements  were  at  hand  and  launched  upon 
whatever  attack  was  under  way.  Few  who 
took  part  in  those  continuous  assaults  can  give 
any  consecutive  account  of  them.  Officers  re- 
turned wounded  to  hospital  never  knowing 
with  what  troops  they  had  fought,  and  the  men 
moved  to  obey  their  orders  half-drugged  with 
exhaustion. 

The  attack  on  the  east  of  the  valley  ran  foul 
of  the  acres  of  wire  where  "I"  and  "F"  had 
vainly  struggled  two  nights  previous,  and  it 
got  no  further.  That  on  the  west  regained 
their  former  positions,  but  could  not  better 
them.  The  main  hope  lay  in  an  infiltration  up 
the  track,  where  a  platoon  of  "E"  was  sent, 
crawling  in  single  file  along  the  ditch.  When 
the  last  had  disappeared  around  a  slight  bend 
in  the  way,  the  battalion  commander  followed 
to  watch  their  progress.  They  all  lay  in  sight 
of  him,  and  one  was  yet  alive,  shot  through  the 
legs  and  returning  with  his  rifle  the  fire  of 
a  machine-gun  in  position  upon  the  tracks,  till 
another  burst  of  fire  from  it  tore  him  to  pieces. 
So  the  attack  failed. 

202 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

On  the  sixth  it  was  reported  that  the  French 
would  attack  from  Binarville,  and  another  at- 
tack was  ordered  upon  the  western  plateau  in 
conjunction  with  them.  The  American  attack 
was  delivered,  though  that  of  the  French  seems 
never  to  have  developed;  nor  was  a  yard  of 
ground  there  gained.  There  was  no  further  at- 
tack upon  the  left.  The  story  of  the  right  is 
that  of  the  First  Battalion. 

The  First  Battalion,  which,  after  the  launch- 
ing of  the  First  Army  Corps  offensive  at  dawn 
of  September  26th,  had  been  moved  up  in  Di- 
visional Reserve  to  the  former  French  front 
line  facing  the  Biesme,  had  on  October  1st 
been  shifted  again  forward  but  to  the  west  of 
La  Harazee.  It  was  reported  that  the  368th 
Regiment  of  colored  troops,  acting  in  liaison 
between  the  77th  Division,  the  left  of  the  First 
Corps,  and  the  38th  French  Corps  to  its  left, 
had  fallen  back,  leaving  a  gap  between  the  two. 
Thus  the  First  Battalion  found  itself  far  to 
the  left  of  its  two  leading  battalions  in  the 
Tranchee  de  Breslau  and  Tranchee  de  Mag- 
deburg, the  former  German  front  line,  in  posi- 
tion to  stop  a  possible  danger  at  this  point.    On 

203 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

the  morning  of  the  third  the  Battalion  started 
forward  to  the  Depot  de  Machines,  then  in  the 
hands  of  the  regiment,  and  that  night  effected 
the  relief  of  the  front,  "D"  and  "C"  from  right 
to  left  on  the  line,  "B"  and  "A"  in  support. 

The  next  day  they  went  forward  in  their 
first  attack,  "D"  providing  a  holding  fire  on 
the  right,  while  "C"  threw  a  platoon  and  a 
half  through  the  wire  on  the  left;  but  there  was 
little  result  save  a  heavy  toll  of  casualties,  and 
by  nightfall  of  the  fourth  their  lines  had  not 
been  advanced.  On  the  fifth,  after  a  two  hours' 
artillery  preparation  beginning  at  noon,  the 
battalion  again  attacked,  "C"  and  "D"  in  the 
front  as  before,  and  again  was  thrown  back 
with  heavy  loss.  The  story  of  the  right  now 
also  becomes  confused.  The  field  messages  are 
largely  undated,  while  in  others  the  dates  or 
map  coordinates  are  seemingly  mistaken.  Yet 
the  substance  of  these  messages  will  serve  to 
outline  the  picture. 

"Lieutenant  Kenyon  ('A'  Company)  hav- 
ing trouble  on  right  with  M.  G.  in  valley.  We 
are  filtering  forward.  Hastings  ('D'  Com- 
pany)." 

204 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

"Have  developed  a  Boche  post  at  95.7-75.8 
and  M.  G.  at  96.1-75.7.  We  are  getting  M.  G. 
fire  from  ravine  on  our  right  front.  Just  lost 
4  men  from  it.  Am  trying  to  envelop.  Till- 
man ('B'  Company). 

"M.  G.  fire  from  junction  of  creeks  and  in 
front.  Been  following  wire  which  goes  down 
slope  to  north.  'D'  to  push  forward,  and  think 
they  will  get  it  strong. 

"  'D'  slowly  moving  forward,  pushing  out 
small  combat  groups  and  coming  up  to  them. 
Seem  to  have  run  into  an  organized  position  on 
their  right  front.  M.  G.  and  rifle-fire  from 
front  and  right.  Whiz-bangs  on  'D'  and  'A.' 
Hastings  has  sent  for  one  pounder  and  is  plac- 
ing Stokes.  Tillman  has  sent  patrols  to  lo- 
cate 306th. 

"Wire  is  30  feet  thick  in  places.  Have  cut 
through  at  turn.  T)'  is  150  yards  in  advance 
of  this  turn,  and  will  swing  N.  W.  following 
wire  as  soon  as  M.  G.'s  on  our  front  are  dis- 
posed of.  They  have  just  had  two  killed  try- 
ing to  cross  the  path  there.  We  are  attacking 
what  I  believe  is  the  left  of  their  organized 
position. 

"306th  left  flank  platoon  is  at  97.0-75.1. 
This  is  authentic/'     (Their  liaison  officer  had 

205 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

reported  them  a  kilometer  north  of  this  point 
two  days  previous.) 

"  T)'  has  been  stopped.  Patrols  report  large 
force  200  yards  to  N.  M.  G.  fire  from  front 
and  right.  Rifle  fire  from  N.  apparently  very 
close.     Some  fire  from  left." 

Major  M'Kinney  had  been  placed  in  charge 
of  operations  on  the  front,  and  had  determined 
upon  a  turning  movement  from  the  east;  but 
an  attack  at  early  morning  of  the  sixth,  deliv- 
ered on  the  right  by  "A,"  "B,"  and  "D,"  and 
continued  by  steady  pressure  throughout  the 
day,  advanced  the  line  there  only  slightly  be- 
yond the  position  held  by  "E"  four  days  be- 
fore, and  did  little  more  than  move  the  field 
of  operations  to  that  point.  At  night  "M"  Com- 
pany was  brought  up  into  the  line,  and  a  bom- 
bardment of  the  supposed  machine-gun  posi- 
tions effected  with  Stokes  mortars.  At  dawn 
of  the  seventh  the  attack  was  resumed,  and  by 
noon  the  enemy  showed  the  first  signs  of  with- 
drawal. 

Moving  along  the  ridge  from  the  east,  under 
a  constant  machine-gun  fire,  and  cutting  its 
way  through  the  wire,  the  battalion  at  length 

206 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

reached  a  position  of  vantage.  "D"  was  left 
to  continue  a  holding  fire  upon  this  front,  while 
"B,"  led  by  Lieutenant  Tillman  and  supported 
by  "A"  and  "M,"  moving  northwest  along  the 
lower  slopes,  outflanked  the  left,  already  part- 
ly withdrawn,  of  the  enemy.  They  advanced 
in  single-file  along  a  winding  trail,  an  ineffec- 
tive fire  passing  overhead.  It  was  done  almost 
without  loss;  yet  to  those  who  knew  him  the 
death  there  of  Sergeant  Watson,  then  in  com- 
mand of  "M"  Company,  marked  the  advance 
with  loss  enough.  He  had  pushed  out  to  locate 
a  machine-gun  firing  from  the  flank,  and  fell 
shot  through  from  shoulder  to  hip.  They 
crossed  the  stream  into  the  Bois  de  la  Buironne 
and  stumbled  upon  a  bombing  party  operating 
against  the  right  of  the  surrounded  force.  It 
consisted  of  only  seven  or  eight  men,  and  some 
may  have  escaped,  but  most  were  killed  where 
they  were  met.  A  few  rods  farther,  and,  a  lit- 
tle before  dusk,  they  had  reached  the  Binar- 
ville-Apremont  road  and  the  right  of  that 
dreary  graveyard  with  its  beleaguered  surviv- 
ors. 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  relief  of  the  Sur- 
207 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

rounded  Battalion,  of  which  very  little  has  thus 
far  been  written,  and  that  little  not  always  with 
accuracy.  Without  the  slightest  wish  to  begin 
unprofitable  controversy,  when,  in  a  publica- 
tion given  as  the  official  history  of  the  division, 
it  is  stated: 

"Simultaneously  .  .  .  came  the  electrifying 
news  that  the  308th  had  penetrated  the  enemy's 
position  and  reached  Major  Whittlesey,  re- 
lieving his  battered,  famished,  but  unbeaten 
command.  Nightfall  of  the  seventh  saw  our  vic- 
torious soldiers  occupying  a  front  .  .  .  along 
the  road  held  by  the  153rd  Brigade,  with  the 
latter  in  liaison  to  its  left  with  the  beleaguered 
battalion  of  the  308th." 

In  common  justice  to  his  regiment,  the  pres- 
ent writer  feels  obliged  to  protest.  The  testi- 
mony of  innumerable  and  competent  witness- 
es indicates  that  the  remaining  elements  of  the 
308th,  while  joining  in  the  attacks  on  the  left, 
did  not  reach,  nor  see,  the  surrounded  force 
until,  after  its  relief  by  the  307th,  it  had  with- 
drawn from  the  ground  it  had  so  bravely  de- 
fended; and  that,  again  after  that  relief  had 

208 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

been  effected,  patrols  sent  east  by  the  relieving 
force  in  search  of  the  153rd  Brigade  returned 
reporting  it  to  be  nearly  a  kilometer  away  on 
the  right,  and  that  it  did  not  propose  extending 
to  the  left. 

As  to  the  story  of  the  Surrounded  Battalion 
itself,  it  belongs  primarily  to  the  308th,  and 
should  be  told  by  them.  The  relation  between 
their  advance  and  the  attack  of  "L"  and  "H" 
Companies  of  the  307th  on  their  right  is  very 
difficult  to  establish,  but  the  latter  appears  to 
have  reached  conclusion  before  the  former  was 
begun.  Testimony  is  widely  at  variance  and 
memory  uncertain  as  to  the  exact  hour  at  which 
events  took  place,  nor  is  there  any  help  in 
studying  the  hours  stated  in  orders,  as  these 
were  very  often  not  even  received  at  the  hours 
set  in  them  for  action.  The  most  probable  con- 
clusion seems  to  be  that  the  attacking  compa- 
nies of  the  307th  unconsciously  aided  in  break- 
ing the  way  for  Major  Whittlesey's  advance, 
since  "L"  Company's  turning  movement  swept 
clear  for  a  time  at  least  almost  the  whole  west 
end  of  the  ridge;  but  the  total  lack  of  coopera- 
tion,  and  indeed  ignorance  of  each   other's 

209 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

whereabouts  or  intention,  between  these  two 
elements  of  the  brigade  must  be  regarded  as 
the  primary  cause  for  the  agony  that  followed 
to  each.  The  companies  of  the  307th,  organ- 
ized as  a  thin  skirmish  line,  reconnoitering  an 
as  yet  unknown  and  strongly  defended  posi- 
tion, had  ten  minutes  in  which  to  prepare  and 
launch  an  assault  in  force.  Their  orders  stated 
that  the  308th  would  attack  simultaneously 
upon  their  left,  which  it  did  not  do ;  while  the 
308th,  advancing  somewhat  later,  were  told 
that  both  the  307th  on  their  right  and  the 
French  upon  their  left  were  also  advancing  to 
extend  the  flanks  of  the  position  they  were  di- 
rected to  occupy,  which  at  that  time  was  not 
actually  the  intention  of  either. 

The  very  costly  attacks  delivered  upon  the 
hill  to  the  west  of  the  railroad  appear  to  have 
been  ill-advised.  It  seemed  to  be  perhaps  the 
strongest  point  of  the  enemy  position,  and 
there  may  have  been  something  of  internation- 
al rivalry  involved.  The  French,  more  elastic 
in  their  advance  and  retreat,  and  less  concerned 
in  never  losing  a  foot  of  ground  than  in  hus- 
banding their  fearfully  depleted  man-power, 

210 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

having  already  swept  beyond  Binarville,  had 
been  repulsed  at  La  Palette  Pavillion,  and  had 
withdrawn  largely  beyond  the  former  town. 
There  may  have  been  an  intention  to  show 
them  what  American  troops  could  do.  But 
apart  from  the  great  strength  of  this  position 
on  the  west  it  did  not  actually  command  the 
ground  held  by  Major  Whittlesey's  battalion, 
and  was  still  held  by  the  enemy  during  the 
night  after  the  relief,  but  without  effectively 
interfering  with  the  relieving  force.  The  first 
company  launched  in  attack  upon  this  hill  was 
the  same  which  had  broken  through  the  enemy 
line  on  the  ridge  to  the  east  two  days  previous, 
almost  reaching  the  later  coveted  grounds.  Had 
that  ground  been  then  designated  as  the  ob- 
jective of  attack,  the  writer,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  that  company,  is  convinced  that  it 
could  have  been  reached;  and  had  the  attack 
been  coordinated  with  that  of  the  308th,  a  con- 
nection with  their  right  flank  could  have  been 
maintained.  Or  again,  later,  had  they  been 
informed  as  to  where  the  surrounded  force  was 
located,  which  was  known  to  their  superiors, 
and  had  they  been  given  any  option  in  the  mat- 

211 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ter,  they  would  most  certainly  have  elected  to 
repeat  their  former  attack  over  somewhat  the 
same  path.  But  they  were  merely  directed  to 
assault  to  the  west,  and  did  so  in  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  battalion  they  sought  was  some- 
where beyond  the  crest  of  the  plateau  before 
them;  and  when  their  attack  was  finally 
checked  there  was  no  one  left  who  had  taken 
any  leading  part  in,  or  apparently  had  any 
knowledge  of,  their  previous  success.  The  east- 
ern ground  had  undoubtedly  been  strengthened 
in  the  interim,  and  yet,  save  for  an  attack  by 
a  platoon  and  a  half  of  "C"  Company,  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  seriously  tested  again; 
while  success  there  both  appeared  more  prob- 
able, and  if  gained  would  have  proved  vastly 
more  effective,  than  upon  the  west  where  so 
much  effort  and  bloodshed  were  expended.  The 
final  success  was  gained  by  passing  completely 
around  the  eastern  flank  of  the  enemy  position. 
But  to  return  to  the  story  of  the  Surrounded 
Battalion  itself.  It  had  advanced  under  or- 
ders to  occupy  the  north  slope  of  the  valley 
stretching  east  from  the  Moulin  des  Charle- 
vaux,  and,  after  some  loss,  had  there  taken  po- 

212 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

sition  by  nightfall  of  October  2nd.  "K"  Com- 
pany of  the  307th,  under  command  of  Captain 
Holderman,  who  had  joined  the  regiment  on 
September  22nd  from  the  40th  Division, 
reached  position  on  the  right  of  this  force  at 
about  dawn  of  October  3rd.  The  force  con- 
sisted of  Companies  "A,"  "B,"  "C,"  "H"  and 
"G"  of  the  308th  Infantry,  under  command  of 
Major  Whittlesey  and  Captain  McMurtry, 
and  two  platoons  of  the  306th  Machine  Gun 
Battalion  under  Lieutenant  Peabody;  the  po- 
sition extended  for  some  four  hundred  yards 
along  the  lower  slope  of  the  ridge  between  the 
Moulin  des  Charlevaux  and  the  Bois  de  la 
Buironne.  "K"  Company,  advancing  over  the 
lower  shoulder  of  the  southern  ridge  at  the  end 
of  night,  ran  the  gauntlet  of  some  machine-gun 
fire  and  suffered  some  slight  loss  before  reach- 
ing the  farther  valley.  The  messengers  sent 
back  to  report  their  arrival  and  coordinates  to 
Captain  Blagden  returned  to  "K"  Company 
with  the  news  that  the  runner-posts  were  gone, 
and  the  way  was  closed  by  the  enemy;  the  ra- 
tion-parties, which  they  had  been  promised 
would  follow  them,  failed  to  arrive ;  and  within 

213 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

the  hour  of  their  arrival  they  realized  that  they 
faced  siege  and  starvation. 

They  had  had  a  cooked  meal  before  starting 
forward,  but  carried  with  them  not  a  greater 
average  than  a  single  day's  ration  each.  With 
the  marshy  stream  close  behind  them,  their  wa- 
ter was  assured,  but,  except  at  night,  only  at 
the  price  of  casualties.  The  duty  of  the  com- 
mander of  "K"  was  clear,  and  he  placed  him- 
self under  the  orders  of  Major  Whittlesey. 
These  were  for  him  to  push  back  the  enemy 
who  were  closing  in  on  the  rear.  Recrossing 
the  valley,  "K"  encountered  a  system  of  wire 
which  they  traversed,  but  only  to  find  other 
wire  beyond,  and  were  themselves  in  some  dan- 
ger of  being  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  battal- 
ion. They  fought  out  a  rear-guard  action  and 
regained  their  former  position,  where  they 
formed  the  defensive  right  flank  of  the  force. 
The  first  enemy  attack  was  delivered  on  the 
evening  of  the  third,  the  grenade  throwers  ad- 
vancing above  the  cut  bank  along  the  road  be- 
hind a  barrage  fire  of  trench-mortars  while, 
covered  by  an  enfilading  machine-gun  fire, 
riflemen  attempted  to  close  on  the  flanks.    The 

214 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

attack  was  beaten  off,  but  with  inevitable  loss. 
There  was  not,  either  then  or  later,  any 
massed  infantry  assault  in  the  commonly  ac- 
cepted meaning  of  the  term ;  the  method  of  at- 
tack which  had  astonished  the  world  in  the 
early  struggles  with  the  British  for  the  Chan- 
nel Ports  or  with  the  French  for  Verdun 
seemed  by  now  to  have  passed  out  of  their  rep- 
ertoire. With  the  possible  exception  of  the 
Marne  in  mid- July,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  Amer- 
ican troops  have  never  been  faced  with  such 
methods,  though  in  this  instance  the  ground 
was  singularly  well  suited  to  it.  An  assaulting 
wave  could  well  have  been  massed  under  cover 
above  the  cut-bank  and  hurled  down  the  hill- 
slope  across  a  position  which  had  no  natural 
strength.  Had  the  determination  of  the  Ger- 
man attack  then  and  later  been  in  any  way 
comparable  to  that  of  the  American  defense, 
only  one  outcome  would  have  been  possible; 
but  although  a  few  of  the  enemy  were  killed 
within  fifteen  or  twenty  yards  of  "K"  Com- 
pany's front  not  a  member  of  the  company  at 
any  time  saw  a  bayonet  fixed  on  a  German 
rifle.     Against  the  methods  actually  used  by 

215 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

the  enemy  the  battalion's  position  on  the  steep 
hillside  had  several  advantages.  They  were 
completely  defiladed  from  the  front,  and,  it 
soon  became  evident,  could  not  be  reached  by 
hostile  artillery ;  the  swamp  in  their  rear,  which 
might  have  been  a  danger,  proved  only  a  de- 
fense from  rear  attack;  but  against  the  con- 
stant fire  of  trench-mortars  they  had  little  or 
no  protection. 

On  the  fourth  there  were  bombing  attacks 
during  the  morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  an 
American  barrage  fell  squarely  upon  their  po- 
sition— the  fire  to  which  "L"  and  "G"  listened, 
passing  above  their  heads  as  they  advanced  to 
their  first  attack  up  the  throat  of  the  ravine 
to  the  southwest.  Carrier-pigeons  were  loosed, 
and  their  presence  with  the  battalion  comes 
rather  as  a  surprise,  calling  for  a  change  in  the 
range  of  these  guns,  and  the  incident  was  not 
repeated.  Two  days  later,  when  another  bar- 
rage was  laid  down,  it  moved  across  the  swamp 
to  their  rear,  and,  jumping  their  position, 
struck  again  before  their  front  with  a  precision 
that  could  not  have  been  bettered. 

By  noon  of  the  second  day  the  last  of  the 
216 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

food  had  been  eaten  and  starvation  began  to 
weaken  the  strength,  but  not  the  spirit,  of  the 
defending  force;  fortunately,  though  there 
were  two  nights  of  rain,  there  was  no  severe 
cold,  as  on  the  few  days  previous  to  their  ad- 
vance, to  further  exhaust  their  resistance.  Pa- 
trols were  frequently  sent  out  in  an  effort  to 
get  through  the  surrounding  cordon,  but  only 
one  man,  Private  Krotashinski  of  "K"  Com- 
pany, succeeded  in  reaching  the  American 
lines,  and  very  many  did  not  come  back.  Aero- 
planes sometimes  tried  to  drop  food  to  them, 
though  never  successfully.  The  days  brought 
little  change.  There  was  a  more  or  less  con- 
stant fire  of  trench-mortars  and  of  sniping, 
bursts  of  machine-gun  fire  from  the  flanks, 
small  bombing  attacks  from  over  the  cut  bank, 
and  an  attack  in  some  force  at  evening.  There 
was  the  steady  drain  of  casualties ;  the  wound- 
ed, though  given  every  possible  aid,  died  from 
lack  of  the  care  that  it  was  not  possible  to  give, 
from  loss  of  blood,  from  exhaustion,  or  from 
gangrene,  and,  dying,  still  shared  the  shallow 
rifle-pits  with  the  living.  It  was  a  nightmare 
time,  brightened  only  by  the  courage  of  all  to 

217 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

see  it  through,  and  by  the  steady  background 
of  sound  beyond  the  ridge  to  southward  where 
their  comrades  could  be  heard  hammering  and 
hammering  upon  the  wall  that  lay  between.  In 
that  anvil  chorus  from  across  the  hills,  the  slow- 
er throbbing  of  American  chauchats,  like  the 
bagpipes  at  Lucknow,  could  always  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  swift  sound  of  the  German 
machine-guns,  and  as  it  sounded  fainter  or 
louder  brought  its  message  of  hope. 

At  least  one  act  of  chivalry  by  the  Germans 
should  be  recorded  in  fairness  to  an  enemy 
whose  reputation  for  chivalry  is  not  high.  A 
single  man  of  "K,"  creeping  down  through  the 
bushes  to  fill  his  canteen  at  the  water-hole, 
where  the  bullets  were  constantly  splashing, 
was  shot  through  the  leg  and  disabled.  There 
a  bombing-party  of  the  enemy  later  found  him, 
dressed  his  wound  with  care,  and  offered  him 
his  choice  of  being  carried  back  with  them  as 
a  prisoner  or  left  to  be  found  by  his  friends. 
He  chose  the  latter,  and  was  known  to  the 
company  as  their  best-bandaged  casualty. 

On  October  7th  an  American  soldier,  cap- 
tured on  patrol,  was  sent  in  to  Major  Whittle- 

218 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

sey  with  a  written  demand  for  surrender.  The 
message  was  in  English,  on  clean  paper,  and 
had  been  written  on  a  typewriter,  something 
which  certainly  could  not  have  been  produced 
by  any  American  battalion  on  the  line.  It  was 
courteous  to  the  verge  of  being  flowery,  a  point 
worth  mentioning  because  the  rumor  spread 
among  the  men  that  it  was  very  bloodthirsty  in 
character.  On  the  contrary  it  began  by  com- 
mending the  messenger  to  the  Major  with  the 
assurance  that  he  had  been  captured  through 
no  fault  of  his  own  and  had  shown  himself  a 
brave  soldier.  It  then  went  on  to  state  that  re- 
lief by  their  comrades  was  clearly  impossible, 
that  the  crying  of  their  wounded  was  distress- 
ing to  hear,  and  that  in  the  name  of  humanity 
they  would  do  best  to  surrender.  In  the  face 
of  such  courtesy  one  may  venture  to  question 
the  accuracy  of  the  reported  answer,  more  es- 
pecially as  there  was  no  one  to  whom  it  might 
be  addressed;  actually  no  message  at  all  was 
returned,  and  the  American  messenger  was  re- 
tained with  the  command.  But  there  was  dis- 
courtesy enough,  and  good  American  spirit 
enough,  too,  for  that  matter,  in  the  remark  of 

219 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

a  private  over  the  incident.  He  asked  Cap- 
tain McMurtry  whether  it  were  true  that  they 
had  been  called  upon  to  surrender,  and  being 
told  that  it  was,  without  asking  what  answer, 
if  any,  had  been  returned,  he  pushed  back  his 
helmet  and  exclaimed : 

"Why,  the  sons !" 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  attitude  was  typical 
of  the  whole  command,  as  was  that  of  another 
soldier  who,  lying  near  an  officer's  feet,  re- 
ceived a  wound  from  a  hand-grenade  in  the 
face.  He  looked  up  rather  dazedly  to  ask  how 
badly  he  seemed  to  be  hurt,  and  being  told  to 
go  down  the  slope  to  be  bandaged,  answered 
cheerfully: 

"All  right,  sir,  but  I'll  be  right  back." 

It  was  considered  as  something  of  an  April 
fool  joke  that  Captain  McMurtry  was  going 
about,  quite  unconsciously,  with  the  wooden 
handle  of  a  German  potato-masher  sticking  in 
his  back.  The  preservation  of  such  a  spirit  un- 
der such  conditions  speaks  worlds  for  the  men 
and  for  the  officers  to  whom  they  looked  for 
guidance,  since  courage  is  as  contagious  as 
fear. 

220 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

The  name  of  humanity,  already  disregarded 
by  Major  Whittlesey,  received  perhaps  a  ruder 
shock  when  the  enemy,  during  the  same  after- 
noon, attacked  with  flame-throwers.  Certain 
memories  of  Neuviller  in  June  will  always 
abide  with  those  who  probed  the  secrets  of  that 
unhappy  village,  and  will  stamp  with  detesta- 
tion the  use  of  that  weapon.  The  present  at- 
tack was  of  very  small  compass,  only  two  Ger- 
mans being  seen  with  flammen-werferSj  and 
both  of  them  being  killed ;  it  is  thought,  though 
not  with  certainty,  that  one  man  of  "K"  was 
first  killed  by  them.  Later  it  was  learned, 
with  probable  truth,  from  the  German  major 
commanding,  who  was  met  after  the  armistice 
by  an  American  officer  at  Coblenz,  that  he 
was  awaiting  a  large  supply  of  flammen-wer- 
fers  for  his  final  attack  upon  the  position.  So 
much  for  the  piteous  crying  of  wounded,  and 
the  dictates  of  humanity. 

The  flanks  of  the  battalion  had  at  first  been 
strengthened  with  machine-guns,  but  these,  on 
the  right  flank  at  least,  had  been  knocked  out 
by  trench-mortars  and  replaced  with  chauchat 
teams.    Ammunition  was  very  low,  so  that  or- 

221 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ders  had  been  given  to  fire  only  at  well-defined 
targets — and  enormous  handicap  in  that  close 
brush-fighting.  Yet  the  evening  attack  of  Oc- 
tober 7th,  preceded  by  an  intense  machine-gun 
barrage,  was  beaten  off  as  successfully  as  had 
been  the  others.  And  then,  a  little  after,  there 
was  a  burst  of  rifle-fire  off  in  the  woods  to  the 
right,  of  rifle-fire  which  they  had  not  fired  and 
which  was  not  fired  at  them,  and  men  looked  at 
each  other  as  they  lay,  weak  with  hunger, 
among  their  delirious  wounded  and  their  sun- 
scorched  dead,  and  they  questioned  each  other 
with  the  look.  And  then,  through  the  gather- 
ing twilight,  a  company  of  American  infantry 
moved  in  upon  them. 

That  was  the  end.  Not  another  shot  was 
fired  upon  that  well-fought  ground,  until  two 
nights  later  some  long-distance  artillery  threw 
in  a  few  shells.  Company  "B"  was  the  first 
to  arrive,  led  in  by  Lieutenant  Tillman,  and 
closely  followed  by  "A"  and  "M."  The  ground 
was  quickly  outposted  to  the  front  and  flanks, 
but  without  encountering  a  single  enemy ;  then 
the  rations,  such  as  they  carried,  were  distrib- 
uted.   By  morning  not  a  German  was  to  be 

222 


THE  SURROUNDED  BATTALION 

found  on  the  ridge  south  of  the  valley  and  the 
valley  itself  presented  a  scene  like  some  hos- 
pital or  rest-area,  filled  with  ambulances,  trucks 
and  staff-cars.  "K"  Company,  which  had  gone 
in  with  eighty-six  men,  was  able  to  march  out 
with  forty-three,  of  whom  very  many  were 
wounded,  and  a  like  proportion  obtained  for 
the  whole  battalion  of  six  hundred.  Had  fresh 
troops  been  available  the  enemy  on  the  ridge 
to  southward,  already  almost  surrounded, 
might  by  quick  action  have  been  themselves 
intercepted  and  captured;  but  the  limit  of  en- 
deavor had  for  the  time  been  reached,  and 
they  were  allowed  during  the  night  to  draw 
out  to  the  west. 

While  the  losses  to  the  Brigade  during  these 
six  bloody  days  must  have  been  beyond  all  pro- 
portion to  those  inflicted  on  the  enemy,  and 
while  it  seems  probable  that  the  German  gen- 
eral retirement  was  here  actually  delayed  in 
the  hopes  of  capturing  the  surrounded  force, 
rather  than  that  the  enemy  were  compelled  by 
their  advance  to  retire — yet  there  can  be  no 
question  but  that  the  indomitable  spirit  of  this 
defense  has  added  a  chapter  to  the  tradition 

223 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

of  American  arms  which  will  survive.  It  is  to 
tradition,  no  less  than  to  purpose,  that  the 
soul  of  a  nation  must  cling,  and  upon  which 
it  must  build  its  life.  The  tactical  or  strategic 
results  of  the  defense  or  capture  of  Cemetery 
Hill  and  the  Peach  Orchard  have  long  since 
vanished  into  the  limbo  of  the  past;  but  the 
tradition  of  courage  there  bequeathed  to  the 
nation,  alike  by  the  men  of  Hancock  and  of 
Pickett,  will  not  vanish.  And  so,  in  lesser  de- 
gree, will  the  siege  of  the  Surrounded  Battal- 
ion remain  to  enrich  the  story  of  America's 
part  in  the  Great  War. 


CHAPTER  XI 

GRAND  PRE 

The  general  withdrawal  of  the  enemy  lines 
upon  this  front,  forced  first  by  the  fall  of 
Montfaucon  to  the  east,  and  later  by  that  of 
Fleville  and  Chatel  Chehery,  where  their  com- 
munications to  the  north  had  been  cut,  was 
now  resumed  with  added  speed.  The  right  of 
the  First  Corps  and  beyond  it  the  Fifth,  forg- 
ing farther  and  farther  ahead  through  the  open 
ground,  was  winning  miles  of  forest  for  the 
77th  Division,  with,  for  the  moment,  little  ef- 
fort upon  their  part ;  and  from  the  flank  of  this 
growing  salient  on  the  east  the  82nd  Division, 
freshly  thrown  into  the  line,  struck  west  across 
the  front  of  the  28th.  Both  armies  were  sweep- 
ing northward  to  the  Kriemhilde  Stellung,  the 
next  line  of  German  defense  along  the  open 
valley  of  the  Aire,  which  represented  in  fact 
the  enemy's  most  vital  remaining  artery  of 

225 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

east  and  west  communication.  The  Aire  it- 
self, a  stream  some  fifty  feet  across  and  six  to 
eight  feet  deep,  promised  something  of  a  bar- 
rier to  the  division's  progress,  and  the  northern 
bank  was  strongly  held  by  the  enemy;  the 
wooded  heights  beyond  Grand  Pre  had  been 
converted  into  a  fortress,  and  the  Bois  des 
Loges  lay  beside  them. 

At  daybreak  of  October  9th,  now  with  a  new 
colonel  (since  Lieutenant- Colonel  Houghton 
had  been  evacuated  sick  and  replaced  by  Colo- 
nel Sheldon)  the  regiment  had  pushed  forward, 
against  a  delaying  fire  of  machine-guns  and  ar- 
tillery, some  five  kilometers  to  the  Bois  de  la 
Taille  northeast  of  Lancon,  where,  for  the  first 
time  in  nearly  three  weeks,  it  had  briefly 
emerged  from  that  never-ending  forest  into 
open  grass-lands.  On  the  eleventh  the  advance 
had  been  resumed  past  Grand  Ham,  and,  skirt- 
ing the  valley  of  the  Aisne,  to  Chevieres  and 
the  Bois  de  Negremont.  The  twelfth  found 
the  First  and  part  of  the  Third  Battalions  on 
the  line,  with  outposts  along  the  railroad,  and 
their  supporting  platoons,  together  with  the 
Second  Battalion,  behind  the  wooded  ridge  of 

226 


9 


Vw  -    _>y  u 


vif^V 


SUN-SCORCHED  AND  DUST-COVERED  DEBRIS 


GRAND  PRE 

the  Bois  de  Negremont.  An  attempt  by  a  pa- 
trol of  "D"  Company  to  cross  the  river  on  the 
broken  bridge  at  Chevieres  had  been  repulsed 
with  loss,  nor  had  the  other  patrols  along  the 
banks  discovered  any  fords ;  an  attempt  by  the 
engineers  to  throw  bridges  across  at  night  had 
also  been  driven  off  by  artillery  and  machine- 
gun  fire.  The  enemy's  strength  had  been  every- 
where developed,  and  his  weakness  not  yet 
found  when,  for  the  morning  of  the  fifteenth, 
a  general  assault  was  ordered.  On  the  right 
the  153rd  Brigade  had  on  the  fourteenth  ef- 
fected the  capture  of  St.  Juvin,  and  it  was  not 
probable  that  the  154th  had  anything  to  gain 
by  further  delaying  their  attack  upon  Grand 
Pre. 

Morning  broke  with  a  thick  white'mist  cling- 
ing over  the  open  meadows,  and  blotting  out 
the  town  of  Grand  Pre 'beyond  the  river.  At 
six-thirty  the  American  artillery  opened  fire 
upon  the  wooded  hills,  and  an  hour  later  the 
First  Battalion  advanced  to  the  attack — "C" 
and  "D"  from  the  southeast,  "B"  and  "A" 
from  the  south.  Despite  the  protecting  fog, 
the  first  movement  of  troops  into  the  open 

227 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

brought  a  sweeping  fire  of  artillery  from  the 
heights  to  the  north  of  the  town,  and  of  ma- 
chine-guns from  the  high  ground,  from  the 
town  itself,  and  from  the  north  bank  of  the 
river.    The  troops  moved  forward  slowly  and 


in  little  groups,  using  every  feature  of  natural 
cover,  and  searching  for  targets  for  their  fire. 
It  was  an  open  fire-fight,  the  first  in  which  the 
regiment  had  ever  engaged ;  and  though  the  ad- 
vantage of  position  and  of  cover  lay  entirely 
with  the  enemy,  the  relief  from  the  blind  strug- 
gling in  the  forest  was  enormous. 

228 


GRAND  PRE 

The  Machine-Gun  Company  was  helping 
with  indirect  fire  from  behind  the  ridge,  and, 
for  the  first  time,  the  one-pound  cannon  came 
most  efficiently  into  action.  By  two  P.  M., 
under  a  constant  storm  from  77's,  88's,  and  ma- 
chine-guns, which  already  had  caused  it  cas- 
ualties of  an  officer  and  sixteen  men,  "C"  had 
built  up  its  firing-line  along  the  open  south 
bank  of  the  river.  "D"  held  the  narrow-gauge 
line  behind  it.  "B,"  having  also  consumed  the 
forenoon  in  its  gradual  advance,  had  carried 
its  firing-line  first  to  the  tracks  by  the  railroad 
station,  and  thence,  by  infiltration,  to  the  trees 
and  bushes  of  the  river,  where  three  platoons 
lined  the  bank  on  the  left  of  the  north  and 
south  roadway,  while  the  fourth  huddled  down 
in  support  along  the  concrete  platform  of  the 
railroad  station.  "A"  held  one  platoon  for- 
ward by  the  tracks  and  three  along  the  north 
edge  of  the  woods. 

Enemy  artillery-fire  of  H.  E.  and  gas  cov- 
ered the  whole  area  back  to  where  the  support- 
ing battalions  lay  about  La  Noue  le  Coq,  and 
where  the  lake  by  the  ruined  chateau  was  filled 
with  the  constant  bubbling  explosions  of  gas- 

229 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

shells.  The  machine-gun  fire  along  the  front 
never  slackened.  Captain  Newcomb,  who  had 
joined  the  regiment  a  few  days  previous,  was 
about  noon  put  in  command  of  the  First  Bat- 
talion, and,  three  hours  later,  Major  M'Kin- 
ney  was  given  general  charge  of  the  operations 
of  the  front.  At  eleven-thirty  A.  M.  the  Third 
Battalion  had  been  pushed  forward  to  the 
northeast  for  an  attack  on  the  right  of  "C" 
Company,  and,  though  unable  to  reach  the  riv- 
er, on  account  of  the  intensity  of  machine-gun 
fire  from  its  farther  bank,  had  got  its  two  for- 
ward companies,  "K"  and  "L,"  along  the  north 
apex  of  the  railroad  curve.  "E"  and  "H"  of 
the  Second  Battalion  were,  at  two-thirty  P. 
M.,  moved  east  across  the  open  to  Chevieres  in 
an  effort  to  connect  with  the  308th,  which  was 
advancing  astride  the  river.  Though  the  move- 
ment brought  immediate  shell-fire,  the  shallow 
depression  in  the  ground  along  which  they 
moved  saved  them  from  heavy  casualties;  but 
there  also  the  north  bank  of  the  river  was  lined 
with  machine-guns,  preventing  a  further  ad- 
vance of  either  themselves  or  the  308th,  still  to 
the  east.     There  they  took  position,  under  a 

230 


GRAND  PRE 

very  constant  fire,  in  a  shallow  trench  border- 
ing the  road  to  Marcq.  Their  patrols  discov- 
ered fords  across  the  river  northeast  of  Che- 
vieres,  but  it  was  dark  before  "F"  and  "G" 
were  brought  up  to  this  ground  and  dug  in  by 
Barbancon  farm,  covering  the  fords  without 
attempting  to  cross  them. 

In  the  meantime  "B,"  extending  its  firing- 
line  to  the  west,  had  reached  the  sharp  curve  on 
the  river  opposite  the  south  end  of  the  island, 
and  there,  about  five  P.  M.,  a  possible  ford  was 
found.  Two  earlier  attempts  to  cross  the  river 
elsewhere,  by  wading  and  by  swimming,  had 
been  driven  back  with  heavy  loss  to  the  men  in 
the  water;  the  first  platoon  had  lost  its  lieu- 
tenant— crawling  back  two  hundred  yards  un- 
der fire  of  snipers  with  a  compound  fracture  of 
the  ankle — and  all  but  eight  of  its  men;  the 
ford  just  discovered  by  the  fourth  platoon  was 
held  by  an  enemy  outpost,  and  the  man  who 
found  it  was  shot  while  leading  his  platoon 
to  the  place;  four  successive  messengers  sent 
to  this  platoon  from  the  Company  P.  C.  at  the 
railroad  station  had  been  shot  before  reaching 
it,  but  without  deterring  the  fifth  from  going, 

231 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

or  from  continuing  to  go.  After  dark  a  cross- 
ing at  the  ford  was  effected.  The  firing-line 
opened  with  everything  it  had  against  the  west 
end  of  town,  and  under  cover  of  this  fire  the 
troops  continued  to  cross,  "B,"  "A,"  "D,"  and 
"C,"  building  up  a  new  line  beyond  the  river. 
As  the  supports  came  forward  they  carried 
planks  from  the  railroad  station,  and  foot- 
bridges were  built  from  a  fallen  tree  to  a  sand- 
bank in  the  river,  and  across  the  canal  beyond. 
By  two-thirty  A.  M.  of  the  sixteenth  almost 
the  whole  battalion  had  crossed  to  the  island, 
and  a  patrol  of  "A"  Company  had  crossed  the 
canal  and  the  wire  to  the  edge  of  the  town, 
where  it  was  driven  off  with  grenades  by  an 
enemy  patrol,  but  without  seemingly  starting 
a  general  alarm.  At  three  A.  M.  the  last  stage 
of  the  attack  was  begun. 

"It  was  so  dark  you  could  see  nothing  and 
it  had  begun  to  rain.  Yet  this  did  not  make  us 
any  more  uncomfortable  as  practically  all  had 
either  waded  the  river  or  fallen  off  the  bridge 
in  the  darkness.  I  had  fallen  in  three  times, 
We  started  in  single  file  across  the  canal  and 
up  a  steep  clay  bank,  cutting  our  way  through 

232 


GRAND  PRE 

a  belt  of  low  wire;  I  was  standing  on  the  bank, 
helping  our  heavily  armed  men  on  to  an  old 
road,  and  about  half  the  column  had  gotten 
across,  when  a  report  sounded  to  our  left.  I 
had  known  that  there  was  a  Boche  outpost 
somewhere  there,  and  another  about  fifty  yards 
away  to  the  right  of  the  bridge,  but  with  the 
rain,  and  as  absolute  silence  had  been  pre- 
served, we  had  gotten  by  so  far  without  being 
discovered.  The  report  was  that  of  a  Very 
light,  fired  by  some  Boche  who  had  probably 
heard  a  man  fall  into  the  canal.  For  a  mo- 
ment I  thought  it  was  all  up,  and  aimed  my 
pistol  at  the  place,  waiting;  every  man  froze 
in  his  tracks.  The  light  burst  almost  directly 
above  the  ford,  glittered  for  a  moment  amidst 
the  driving  rain,  and  went  out.  Still  silence, 
then  a  whispered  word  down  the  line,  and  we 
moved  on.  Just  as  the  first  gray  streaks  of 
dawn  began  to  appear  we  started  cleaning  up 
the  west  end  of  the  town." 

"B"  Company,  which  had  so  far  borne  the 
heaviest  brunt  of  the  attack,  and  with  a  loss  of 
two  officers  and  nearly  forty  men,  was  now 
placed  as  a  covering  party  south  of  the  town. 
"D"  was  sent  to  the  west  to  ward  off  a  pos- 
sible counter-attack  from  that  direction,  one  of 

233 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

its  patrols  there  effecting  the  capture  of  an 
enemy  outpost  of  four  men  and  two  light  ma- 
chine-guns, while  another  followed  the  Longwe 
road  for  nearly  two  kilometers  without  en- 
countering resistance.  "A"  and  "C,"  enter- 
ing the  town  by  a  narrow  alley  in  its  western 
part,  began  the  cleaning  of  it. 

Formed  as  it  was  along  a  single  street,  or- 
ganized principally  for  defense  to  the  south, 
and  taken  completely  by  surprise,  the  cleaning 
up  of  the  town  was  accomplished  with  aston- 
ishingly little  loss.  Not  a  shot  had  been  fired 
since  crossing  the  canal  nor  had  any  sentinel 
been  met;  in  complete  silence,  and  still  almost 
in  darkness,  "C"  turned  to  the  east  along  the 
street,  and  "A"  to  the  west.  A  single  figure 
came  round  the  corner  of  a  building;  there  was 
a  startled  "Mein  Gottl"  and  still  in  silence, 
with  the  muzzle  of  a  pistol  at  his  stomach,  "A" 
Company  had  captured  the  first  prisoner.  He 
told  of  a  garrison  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  in 
the  town,  all  machine-gunners  or  automatic- 
riflemen,  and  led  the  way  to  the  cellar  occupied 
by  the  rest  of  his  squad.  At  his  summons  they 
climbed  out,  their  packs  on  their  shoulders,  and 

234 


GRAND  PRE 


were  passed  along  to  the  rear.  There  was 
some  movement  down  the  street,  and  a  German 
officer  passed,  unconscious  that  American  sol- 
diers were  flattened  against  the  walls  to  right 
and  left.  He  seemed  to  be  leading  out  a  relief 
of  the  guard,  and  all  might  have  filed  on  into 
the  ambush  had  not  some  one  shouted  "Hands 
up."  The  officer  swung  around,  falling  as  he 
did  so  with  a  bullet  through  the  neck;  there 
followed  a  swift  struggle  in  the  half-light,  and 
then  a  stampede  back  across  the  open  fields  to 
the  north.  Some  were  shot  as  they  ran;  a  few 
were  killed  in  the  street,  and  some  more  made 
prisoners;  but  probably  the  greater  part  es- 
caped. This  completed  the  west  end  of  the 
town,  with  twenty-three  prisoners  already  on 
their  way  to  the  rear.  "A"  Company  then 
turned  east  to  help  "C"  in  its  more  difficult 
task. 

Here,  as  the  surprise  had  been  less  com- 
plete, the  resistance  was  much  stronger;  the 
fire  of  machine-guns  and  automatic  rifles  spout- 
ed from  windows  and  cellars,  and  swept  down 
the  length  of  the  street;  fighting  continued 
across  the  main  square  by  the  church  till  after 

235 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

nine  A.  M.  Lieutenant  Grubbs  of  "C"  Com- 
pany took  a  patrol  around  the  backs  of  the 
buildings  there  to  break  this  resistance,  and 
seemingly  succeeded,  though  he  himself  was 
not  seen  again.  From  here  on  the  work  was 
completed  by  three  patrols  of  "A"  Company, 
one  of  a  lieutenant  and  six  men  clearing  the 
buildings  to  the  right  of  the  street,  another, 
similarly  formed,  clearing  those  to  the  left, 
while  a  sergeant  and  six  men,  recrossing  the 
canal,  went  through  the  outbuildings  to  the 
east.  Lieutenant  Ross's  patrol  attempted  also 
to  clear  the  crest  of  the  hill  beyond  the  north 
edge  of  town,  but  were  driven  back  by  ma- 
chine-gun fire;  Lieutenant  McCullough's,  aft- 
er reaching  the  last  buildings  to  the  northeast, 
were  again  driven  back  by  grenades  thrown 
from  this  same  eminence ;  and  Sergeant  Swen- 
son,  occupying  this  last  group  of  houses, 
though  on  the  other  side  of  the  street,  was  ef- 
fectually cut  off  from  retreat. 

The  buildings  occupied  by  this  patrol  formed 
the  last  group  on  the  east  of  the  road,  and 
were  separated  by  several  rods  from  the  con- 
tinuous structures  of  the  rest  of  the  town.  Al- 

236 


GRAND  PRE 

though,  during  the  unorganized  resistance  of 
the  enemy,  the  patrol  had  drawn  no  fire  while 
in  the  open  meadows  beyond  the  canal,  hardly 
had  they  entered  these  buildings,  about  eleven 
A.  M.,  when  a  messenger,  crossing  this  open 
space  toward  them,  was  seen  to  fall;  and  a 
little  later  a  messenger  sent  out  by  them  was 
shot  down  on  the  same  ground.  The  first  was 
dead,  but  as  the  second,  who  had  recklessly 
paused  to  thumb  his  nose  at  the  hill-top,  was 
still  living,  another  went  out  to  bring  him  in. 
He,  too,  was  wounded,  and  the  man  he  had 
sought  to  help  died  in  his  hands.  The  fire 
cane  both  from  a  machine-gun  seemingly  just 
placed  in  position  up  the  road  to  the  north,  and 
from  the  hill  to  the  west  of  the  road.  The 
ground  here  rose  in  a  sheer  cliff  above  the 
roof-tops,  from  the  upper  ledge  of  which  a 
machine-gun  was  fired  and  hand-grenades 
were  thrown.  Every  effort  of  the  patrol  to 
return  a  sniping  fire  from  the  upper  windows 
upon  this  position  was  driven  off  by  grenades 
thrown  through  the  roof,  and  a  status  quo  was 
thus  established  lasting  throughout  the  day. 
Beyond  this  ledge  of  ground,  and  hidden  by 
237 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

it  from  sight,  was  a  large  chateau  with  formal 
gardens — the  "citadel"  which  figures  so  largely 
in  the  subsequent  story  of  the  78th  Division 
upon  this  ground,  and  which  has  led  to  such 
unfortunate  controversy  as  to  which  of  the  two 
divisions  might  fairly  claim  the  taking  of 
Grand  Pre.  Grand  Pre,  as  a  town,  was  un- 
doubtedly taken,  swept,  and  outposted 
throughout  by  the  307th  Infantry;  nor  was 
there  any  reentering  of  the  town  by  the  enemy 
during  that  day,  as  none  passed  the  "A"  Com- 
pany patrol,  which  lay  there  awaiting  relief 
until  nightfall;  nor  when  the  patrol  withdrew 
through  the  town  did  they  see  any  sign  of  the 
enemy.  But  as  a  position  the  capture  was  ii3t 
completed  while  the  enemy  still  held  this  dom- 
inating keep;  and  perhaps  one  should  add 
Belle joyeuse  Farm,  a  kilometer  to  the  north, 
where  his  artillery  seemed  to  be  concentrated. 
The  relief  by  the  312th  and  311th  Infan- 
tries of  the  78th  Division  began  on  the  night 
of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth,  and  for  the  Sec- 
ond and  Third  Battalions  of  the  307th  was 
completed  by  daybreak  of  the  sixteenth.  The 
Third  Battalion  had  after  dark  been  with- 

238 


GRAND  PRE 

drawn  from  its  position  to  the  east  of  the  town 
and  returned  to  support,  "L"  Company  out- 
posting  about  the  railroad  station,  and  "I" 
endeavoring,  though  unsuccessfully,  to  effect 
liaison  with  the  French  on  the  left.  The 
ground  of  the  First  Battalion  was  not  taken 
over  until  one  P.  M.;  and  the  farthest  post, 
that  of  Sergeant  Swenson's  patrol,  was  never 
relieved  at  all.  At  about  three  P.  M.  the 
312th  withdrew  from  the  northeast  part  of 
town;  and  at  four  an  American  barrage  was 
put  down  on  it,  during  which  the  outpost  of 
"A"  Company  fortunately  suffered  no  casual- 
ties. After  that  the  enemy  artillery  took  a 
hand,  as  they  had  been  doing  all  over  the  town 
during  much  of  the  day,  and  at  dusk  the  pa- 
trol withdrew,  carrying  its  one  wounded  and 
leaving  the  two  dead. 

The  taking  of  Grand  Pre  represents  prob- 
ably the  most  successful  action  of  the  regiment, 
for  it  is  the  only  occasion  on  which  it  can  fairly 
be  said  that  the  enemy  were  driven  en  masse 
from  a  position  which  they  had  fully  intended 
to  hold.  Such  occasions  are  much  more  rare 
than  might  be  supposed,  even  in  the  course  of 

239 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

a  long,  and  eminently  successful,  advance.  The 
war,  as  it  was  found  by  American  troops,  seems 
very  seldom  to  have  involved  a  fight  to  a  finish 
on  any  one  bit  of  ground;  and  the  most  that 
was  usually  accomplished  was  to  hurry  a  with- 
drawal, for  which  the  enemy  were  prepared  at 
a  later  date.  There  were  forty  soldiers  and  an 
officer  captured  here,  together  with  eight  light 
and  two  heavy  machine-guns.  The  ground  af- 
forded an  opportunity  which  had  long  been 
lacking  for  the  use  of  auxiliary  arms ;  the  Ma- 
chine-Gun  Company  and  the  one-pound  can- 
non platoon  were  able  to  bring  an  effective 
fire  from  the  Bois  de  Negremont,  over  the 
heads  of  the  troops,  upon  the  houses  of  the 
town,  and  some  of  the  accompanying  guns 
could  be  laid  "pointblank."  The  casualties  of 
the  regiment  were  returned  as  twenty-four 
killed,  ninety-one  wounded,  seventeen  missing, 
and  seven  gassed,  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
in  all. 

During  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  the 
regiment  was  withdrawn  to  the  Bois  de  la 
Taille,  seven  kilometers  to  the  south,  and 
thence  on  the  next  day  as  far  to  the  southeast 

240 


GRAND  PRE 

as  the  Chene  Tondu.  Here  in  an  amphithea- 
ter of  ground  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Bois 
d'Apremont  a  collection  of  German  huts  and 
barracks,  ranged  one  above  another  on  the 
slope,  gave  lodging  to  the  whole  command, 
and  here  for  four  days  the  regiment  remained, 
resting,  bathing,  and  refitting.  On  the  twen- 
ty-first it  moved  north  six  kilometers  to  a  line 
representing  the  Corps  Line  of  Resistance,  the 
First  Battalion  near  Fleville,  the  Second  near 
Cornay,  and  the  Third  near  La  Besonge,  where 
for  four  days  they  garrisoned  and,  which  was 
far  more  actual,  dug  the  trenches.  On  the 
twenty-fifth  the  battalions  were  again  returned 
to  the  Chene  Tondu,  where  they  received  re- 
placements, five  hundred  for  the  regiment, 
and  remained  in  rest  and  training  till  the  end 
of  the  month. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

While  the  77th  Division  was  making  the 
most  of  its  two  weeks'  respite  from  the  line, 
the  others,  which  had  taken  its  place,  were  still 
hammering  at  the  Kriemhilde  Stellung — and 
progress  had  been  very  slow.  The  chateau 
and  the  high  ground  behind  Grand  Pre,  Belle- 
joyeuse  Farm,  and  the  Bois  des  Loges  had  of- 
fered very  stubborn  resistance,  so  that  when, 
on  the  last  day  of  October,  the  division  again 
resumed  the  front  it  was  upon  almost  the  same 
ground  as  that  on  which  it  had  relinquished  it. 
Yet,  if  little  territory  had  been  gained,  many 
strong  positions  had  been  carried,  and,  for 
those  that  remained,  not  very  much  time  was 
needed.  The  advance  to  the  Meuse,  although 
now  officially  listed  as  a  part  of  the  same  of- 
fensive as  that  which  had  carried  the  division 
north,  through  the  eighteen  kilometers  of  the 

242 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Argonne  Forest,  was,  at  least  from  the  divi- 
sion's standpoint,  a  new  campaign. 

For  this  advance  the  First  Corps  was 
formed,  with  the  77th  Division  in  the  center, 
the  80th  upon  its  right,  and  the  78th  on  its 
left,  the  153rd  Brigade  forming  the  front  of 
the  Division.  On  the  morning  of  October  31st, 
the  307th  Infantry  was  moved  from  its  billets 
at  Chene  Tondu  six  kilometers  north  to  the 
vicinity  of  Pylone,  a  cluster  of  farms  lying 
west  of  Cornay,  and  its  orders  were  to  follow, 
at  about  two  kilometers,  the  rear  elements  of 
the  153rd  Brigade.  Throughout  November 
1st  these  did  not  advance,  for  the  153rd  Bri- 
gade was  attacking  at  Champigneulle  the  last 
organized  line  of  enemy  resistance  south  of  the 
Meuse,  and  the  resistance  was  still  very  strong. 
By  morning  of  November  2nd  this  line  had 
been  broken,  and  the  troops  started  forward  on 
the  long  advance,  an  advance  such  as  had  never 
before  during  the  war  been  opened  to  Allied 
troops,  and  which  in  five  days  should  carry 
them,  half  famished  and  wholly  exhausted, 
across  thirty-eight  kilometers  of  enemy  terri- 
tory to  the  river. 

243 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

At  dawn  of  the  second,  following  the  306th 
Infantry,  the  Regiment  advanced  across  the 
Aire,  through  St.  Juvin,  and  on  to  a  position 
east  of  the  Moulin  de  Champigneulle.  Cham- 
pigneulle  had  been  converted  into  a  fortress, 
where  trenches  connected  house  to  house,  run- 
ning across  the  village  streets  and  through  the 
cellars;  but  it  was  no  longer  a  fortress  nor  a 
village,  but  a  smouldering  heap  of  ruins;  the 
Allied  artillery  had  stamped  it  out.  In  a 
single  group  to  the  east  of  the  town  lay  eighty 
of  the  enemy's  horses,  killed  by  shell-fire.  The 
regiment  had  dug  in  on  their  new  position  when 
after  dark  came  orders  for  a  further  advance. 
The  First  Battalion  was  loaded  on  trucks, 
while  the  Second  and  Third  took  up  the  march. 
Verpel,  where  considerable  resistance  had  been 
expected,  and  of  which  large-scale  maps  had 
been  issued,  showing  every  detail  of  the  town 
and  its  defences — Verpel  had  been  passed  with- 
out a  check;  and,  pushing  north  through  the 
darkness,  the  trucks  of  the  First  Battalion 
reached  Thenorgues.  Here  the  whole  country 
to  the  north  was  under  water,  and  the  306th 
in  the  town  reported  that  the  line  lay  along  the 

244 


•map -or- 
ARGON  «%*'***&&* 
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245 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

canal  beyond  it.  Perhaps  due  to  the  rumble  of 
motors  in  the  street,  or  perhaps  by  chance,  the 
enemy  began  a  heavy  shelling  of  the  town,  and 
the  troops  were  withdrawn  to  the  woods  west 
of  the  Moulin  de  Thenorgues,  where,  after  an 
advance  of  over  ten  kilometers,  they  took  po- 
sition with  the  other  two  battalions  a  little  be- 
fore dawn. 

Toward  noon  of  the  same  day,  November 
3rd,  the  advance  was  resumed,  through  Then- 
orgues andBuzancy,  where  the  battered  houses 
were  still  burning  in  the  rain,  and  on  through 
Bar  eight  kilometers  north  to  Fontenoy.  There 
had  been  intermittent  shell-fire  through  the 
night  and  morning,  which,  as  the  cross-roads 
north  of  Harricourt  were  reached,  grew  to 
such  intensity  as  to  force  a  halt.  And  while 
they  halted  here,  waiting  for  the  shelling  to 
cease,  there  passed  overhead,  like  flocks  of  wild 
geese,  squadron  after  squadron  of  aeroplanes, 
hundreds  of  allied  planes,  and  the  sky  seemed 
black  with  them.  They  passed  over  to  west- 
ward, and  then  from  Authe  came  the  continu- 
ous roar  of  their  falling  bombs.  Whatever 
there  was  of  enemy  strength  or  munitions  there 

246 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

marked  for  destruction,  its  destruction  must 
have  been  very  complete. 

Here  leaving  the  trail  of  the  305th,  which, 
now  in  support,  was  heading  northwest,  the 
Regiment  moved  direct  to  Fontenoy,  where 
was  the  Headquarters  of  the  306th  on  the  line. 
Orders  were  received  to  take  over  the  front  at 
dawn,  and  about  eleven  P.  M.  the  regiment 
again  started  forward.  The  roads  were  deep 
in  mud  and  crowded  with  traffic ;  at  St.  Pierre- 
mont  there  was  again  shell-fire  to  be  passed, 
and  the  town  was  partly  afire ;  as  almost  always 
at  night,  it  was  raining.  From  the  Headquar- 
ters of  the  forward  battalion  of  the  306th,  there 
established,  little  could  be  learned  of  the  line; 
so,  without  guides,  the  First  and  Third  Bat- 
talions moved  forward  behind  skirmishers  to 
the  ridge  southeast  of  Oches  to  await  daylight. 
The  Second  Battalion  remained  in  support 
west  of  St.  Pierremont. 

Dawn  of  November  4th  revealed  the  ad- 
vance elements  of  the  306th,  which  had  not 
been  found  in  the  darkness,  and  an  open  ridge 
a  mile  to  the  northward  pitted  with  machine- 
gun  positions.    The  first  forward  movement  of 

247 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

troops  brought  a  sweeping  fire  from  this  posi- 
tion across  the  front,  and  from  La  Polka  and 
Isly  Farms  to  the  east,  where  two  enemy  field- 
guns  also  went  into  action.  There  was  no  liai- 
son with  flanking  organizations  either  to  right 
or  left.  As  the  fire  both  from  machine-guns 
and  artillery  was  too  intense  to  attempt  a 
frontal  assault  across  the  intervening  valley, 
the  battalions  clung  to  their  positions  along 
the  crest,  the  Third  on  the  right,  near  the  high- 
est point  of  the  ridge,  the  First  on  the  left,  and 
the  Second  in  close  support  under  the  reverse 
slope.  Liaison  patrols  were  sent  out  to  the 
flanks,  but  not  until  nearly  noon  was  the  left 
of  the  80th  Division  located  on  the  Somman- 
the-St.  Pierremont  road,  and,  much  later,  the 
right  of  the  78th  at  Verrieres. 

"A"  Company,  from  the  support  of  the 
First  Battalion,  moved  down  the  western  slope 
and  up  the  valley  into  Oches,  entering  it  about 
nine  A.  M. ;  but  they  were  not  the  first  of  the 
Allies  into  the  town.  The  old  French  inter- 
preter, acting  as  Regimental  Headquarters 
mess-officer,  had  been  sent  in  with  the  mess- 
cart  at  an  early  hour,  and  was  unsuspiciously 

248 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

in  process  of  arranging  a  place  for  the  head- 
quarters mess  when  he  found  that  he  shared 
the  town  with  the  Germans.  There  "A"  Com- 
pany discovered  him  in  a  highly  conversational 
mood,  and  gathered  that  he  was  thinking  much 
less  of  the  glory  of  his  position  than  of  his  dis- 
like for  American  methods.  The  village  was 
by  this  time  free  of  the  enemy,  but  fire  sweep- 
ing down  the  valley  from  La  Polka  Farm  and 
from  the  direction  of  La  Berliere  prevented 
any  movement  beyond  it  to  the  north.  The  ac- 
companying guns  were  close  behind,  and  a 
message  to  them  brought  a  very  prompt  fire  on 
the  positions  across  the  valley — a  fire  in  which 
the  Machine-Gun  Company  also  joined.  Here 
and  there  little  figures  were  seen  to  jump  up 
among  the  puffs  of  smoke  and  dust,  and  to 
hurry  back  over  the  open  ridge.  For  the  first 
time  in  their  experience  the  chauchat-teams  had 
visible  targets  at  which  to  shoot. 

The  front  line  companies,  "C,"  "D,"  "M," 
and  "L,"  filtered  a  thin  firing-line  down  the 
slope  and  across  the  valley  bottom,  but  they 
could  gain  no  ground  up  the  farther  slope. 
Flanking  parties  were  sent  along  the  saddle- 

249 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

back  toward  La  Polka  and  Isly,  and  artillery- 
fire  was  also  directed  on  them,  but  there  also 
very  little  ground  was  gained.  The  fire  on 
both  sides  was  extremely  heavy;  the  crew  of 
one  of  the  American  field-guns  was  wiped  out 
by  a  direct  hit,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day 
the  two  leading  battalions  lost  four  officers 
and  some  sixty  men;  the  Second  Battalion,  in 
support  behind  the  hill,  also  suffered  some  loss- 
es from  artillery  fire,  and  its  commanding  of- 
ficer, Major  Prentice,  was  wounded  by  a  long- 
distance machine-gun  fire,  curving  down  over 
the  slope;  there  was  heavy  shelling  of  St. 
Pierremont  to  the  rear.  Again  a  vast  flight  of 
bombing-planes  passed  overhead  to  northward. 
Night  brought  no  change  beyond  a  closing  up 
of  the  flanks  by  the  80th  Division  across  the 
Rivau  du  Pre  Billet  and  by  the  308th  Infan- 
try into  Oches. 

At  daybreak  of  November  5th,  after  a  fur- 
ther shelling  of  the  ridge  opposite  and  of  the 
La  Polka  position,  the  Regiment  again  start- 
ed forward.  Up  till  about  five  A.  M.  machine- 
gun  fire  had  continued  from  the  woods  north 
of  Oches,  but  to  the  Regiment's  advance  at  six- 

250 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

thirty  there  was  no  further  resistance  on  that 
ground.  Pushing  north  against  artillery  fire, 
across  country,  and  constantly  urged  to  speed, 
the  units  began  to  lose  cohesion.  The  wooded 
height  of  Mt.  du  Cygne  was  passed  without  a 
shot ;  most  of  the  companies  were  swung  north- 
east along  the  hog-back  leading  to  Mt.  Dami- 
on,  while  a  part  of  "K"  was  detached  to  mop 
up  La  Berliere.  A  few  civilians  were  found, 
but  none  of  the  enemy,  who  could  now  be  seen 
drawing  off  across  the  open  hills  to  the  north- 
west. The  Machine-Gun  Company,  which 
since  leaving  St.  Pierremont  had  been  carry- 
ing its  guns  by  hand,  and  continued  tovdo  so 
without  losing  distance  during  the  succeeding 
days,  opened  with  effective  fire  on  these  tar- 
gets. In  front,  on  its  commanding  hill-crest, 
rose  the  town  of  Stonne,  and  toward  this  goal 
the  advance  continued  with  increasing  speed. 
A  platoon  of  "L,"  quite  unconnected  with  the 
rest  of  the  company,  but  accompanied  by  Colo- 
nel Sheldon,  were  the  first  troops  to  enter  the 
town;  they  were  closely  followed  in  by  "M," 
who,  being  lost  from  the  battalion,  were  un- 
aware that  it,  together  with  the  First  Battal- 

251 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

ion,  was  forming  on  Mt.  Damion  for  an  at- 
tack on  the  place.  The  Germans  had  left 
some  five  minutes  before  and  two  of  them 
were  captured  in  the  streets. 

The  town  was  filthy  with  a  litter  of  garbage 
and  refuse  strewn  broadcast  about  it;  and 
packed  in  the  church  and  the  graveyard  was 
a  crowd  of  civilians,  gathered  together  for  the 
hour  of  their  deliverance.  As  the  first  Ameri- 
can troops  came  down  the  street,  close  along 
the  house- walls,  in  one  tide  of  hysterical  joy 
they  streamed  forth  to  greet  them.  Four  years 
of  bondage,  in  hatred  and  in  fear,  and  these 
were  their  deliverers,  a  people  whom  they  had 
never  seen  before,  but  had  been  taught  to  love, 
and  the  French  do  not  try  to  conceal  emotion. 
Old  men,  old  women,  and  girls,  their  arms  were 
around  the  necks  of  the  soldiers,  and  their  poor 
pillaged  homes  were  ransacked  for  some  token, 
some  hidden  treasure  of  food,  to  press, 
laughing  and  crying,  into  the  hands  of  the  hun- 
gry and  tired  men.  It  was  worth  much  of 
hardship  and  of  suffering  to  have  been  among 
the  first  troops  into  Stonne;  not  often  is  the 

252 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

fruit  of  victory  spread  at  one's  feet  in  such  a 
harvest  of  human  hearts. 

As  the  First  Battalion  moved  into  the  town 
an  aeroplane  swooped  low  over  the  housetops, 
dropping  a  message  of  congratulation,  with 
news  of  American  troops  in  La  Besace  to  the 
east.  Thither  "K,"  "L,"  and  "M"  of  the  Third 
Battalion  were  sent,  arriving  about  dark  to 
find  the  place  held  by  the  153rd  Brigade  Head- 
quarters, with  a  battalion  of  troops.  The  en- 
emy, still  on  the  outskirts  of  town,  were  firing 
down  the  streets.  "L"  Company  sent  out  a 
patrol  of  eight  men,  two  from  each  platoon, 
under  Lieutenant  Hoover  and  Sergeant  Cook, 
the  latter  already  twice  evacuated  for  wounds 
on  other  fronts,  and  who,  as  platoon  leader, 
was  not  intended  to  have  gone  himself,  only  he 
said  that  his  men  were  too  tired  to  send.  They 
had  completed  their  route  without  loss,  and 
had  returned  to  the  edge  of  town,  when,  for 
one  fatal  moment,  they  gathered  at  a  cross- 
roads in  the  darkness  and  driving  rain;  and  a 
single  shell,  striking  fairly  in  their  midst,  killed 
or  wounded  every  man.  Only  one  was  able  to 
walk  back,  badly  wounded,  to  the  company 

253 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

with  the  news  that  the  sergeant  and  four  others 
were  killed,  and  the  lieutenant  mortally- 
wounded. 

Stonne  too  had  been  heavily  shelled  by  the 
enemy,  and  a  number  of  the  civilians  wounded, 
while  others,  their  brief  rejoicings  over,  moved 
out,  pushing  their  scant  belongings  before 
them  in  wheel-barrows,  into  the  night  and  the 
rain.  The  First  Battalion  pushed  their  out- 
posts north  through  the  woods  to  the  line  of 
the  Huttes  d'Ogny,  with  their  main  line  along 
the  Stonne-Warniforet  road.  The  Second 
Battalion  lay  in  support,  some  near  the  cruci- 
fix of  Le  Pain  de  Sucre,  and  some  in  the  town. 
The  night  was  one  of  drenching  rain,  of  ex- 
haustion, of  hunger,  and  of  some  confusion,  as 
the  field  messages  of  the  Battalion  Command- 
ers indicate: 

"My  men  are  absolutely  all  in.  Am  trying 
to  locate  the  front  line  of  308th.  If  you  have 
this  information  it  would  be  greatly  appre- 
ciated." 

"Third  Battalion  was  in  La  Besace  when 
your  message  reached  me  directing  me  not  to 

254 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

occupy  it.  Rest  of  your  message  illegible  from 
rain.  153rd  Brigade  Headquarters  here  and 
one  battalion,  306th.  I  have  put  out  cossack- 
posts  along  road  west  of  town.  Men  very  tired 
and  have  nothing  to  eat." 

"6:15  A.  M.,  November  6th. — No  rations 
arrived  as  yet." 

Yet,  with  or  without  rations,  at  six-thirty  A. 
M.  of  November  6th,  again  the  advance  start- 
ed, the  First  Battalion  on  the  left,  the  Second 
on  the  right,  and  the  Third  in  support.  Push- 
ing north  through  the  Bois  de  Raucourt  the 
two  leading  battalions  were  met,  on  the  north- 
ern edge  of  the  woods,  by  heavy  machine-gun 
fire  from  Mongarni  and  Malmaison  Farms, 
and,  calling  for  artillery  preparation,  took  po- 
sition before  them.  This  was  delivered  in  up- 
ward of  an  hour's  time,  together  with  fire  from 
the  Machine-Gun  Company;  but  the  operation 
occupied  the  entire  forenoon. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Third  Battalion,  less 
"I"  Company,  which  had  become  disconnected 
and  joined  to  the  First  Battalion,  started  from 
La  Besace  with  the  colonel,  supposedly  in  sup- 

255 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

port,  though  not  in  touch  with  any  other  troops. 
A  single  mounted  orderly  sent  forward  as 
point,  though  quite  unused  to  such  work,  most 
efficiently  fulfilled  his  mission.  There  was  a 
sudden  burst  of  fire  up  the  road,  and  the  whole- 
hearted celerity  of  both  horse  and  rider  in  their 
return  gave  the  required  warning  of  the  en- 
emy's presence.  The  battalion  was  deployed 
across  the  road  about  half-way  between  Hay- 
moy  Farm  and  the  cross-roads  to  Flaba,  "K" 
to  the  left  of  the  road  and  "L"  to  the  right; 
then  the  advance  continued.  "K"  swung  up 
over  the  high  ground  to  the  west,  outflanking 
the  positions  of  Mongarni  and  Malmaison, 
which  were  holding  up  the  First  and  Second 
Battalions;  "L"  swept  out  the  broken  woods 
along  the  valley  road;  and  "M"  moved  east 
through  Flaba,  the  first  troops  into  that  town. 
Standing  on  the  open  slope  northeast  of 
Ennemane  Farm  one  could  see  the  enemy 
streaming  back  over  the  bare  hills  to  the  west- 
ward, and  south  of  them  "K's"  advancing  skir- 
mish line  and  artillery  columns.  It  was  a 
beautiful  motion-picture  of  well-ordered  war, 
but  there  was  no  contact  between  the  two;  the 

256 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Germans  did  not  wait  for  that.  Yet  had  it  not 
been  for  a  somewhat  academic  insistence  upon 
artillery  preparation  of  the  ground  south  of 
Raucourt  there  might  well  have  been  contact. 
All  troops  were  halted  for  upwards  of  an  hour, 
while  a  total  of  seven  shells  was  thrown  at  a 
supposed  machine-gun  position  southwest  of 
town,  and  while  the  enemy  made  good  their 
escape. 

A  squad  or  two  of  "L"  Company  under 
Lieutenant  Harkins  were  the  first  troops  to 
enter  Raucourt,  closely  followed  in  by  "K," 
and  the  scenes  of  pathetic  and  hysterical  joy 
at  Stonne  were  everywhere  repeated.  Through 
the  laughter  and  singing  and  tears  one  remem- 
bers the  figure  of  an  old  man,  with  face  gray 
and  worn  but  alight  with  happiness,  knocking 
down  the  German  signs  with  a  shovel.  With 
scarcely  a  pause  in  the  town,  "K"  pushed  on 
down  the  valley  to  Haraucourt,  the  first  troops 
to  arrive,  and  were  ordered  still  on  to  Beau 
Menil  Farm.  But  by  now  the  Third  Battalion, 
still  supposedly  in  support,  was,  as  a  unit, 
ceasing  to  exist ;  and  the  enthusiasm  of  mount- 
ed officers  was  overshooting  the  endurance  of 

257 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

unfed  men.  The  order  was  rescinded,  and  "K" 
went  into  bivouac  at  the  road-forks  west  of 
Haraucourt. 

"M,"  after  stopping  to  mop  up  Flaba, 
though  no  enemy  troops  were  found  there,  had 
joined  "L"  in  the  cabbage-field  north  of  En- 
nemane  Farm,  and  the  two  had  made  some- 
thing of  a  meal  of  raw  cabbage.  With  little 
prospect  of  anything  more  substantial  they 
now  went  into  bivouac  at  Nouveau  Montjoie, 
two  kilometers  to  the  east  of  Raucourt,  and  a 
message  from  the  battalion  commander  that 
evening  states  their  grievance: 

"My  men,  with  exception  of  few  who  went 
through  towns,  have  had  nothing  to  eat  to-day. 
with  no  prospect  of  anything  to-morrow." 

One  platoon  of  "M,"  however,  under  Lieu- 
tenant Kisch,  becoming  separated  from  the 
rest,  understanding  their  orders  to  be  to  press 
on  to  the  northeast,  and  imagining  themselves 
to  be  behind,  had  gone  clear  through  to  Villers- 
devant-Mouzon,  which  they  reached  at  four- 
fifteen  P.  M.,  the  first  troops  of  the  brigade  to 
reach  the  Meuse.    The  Second  Battalion  went 

258 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

into  bivouac  at  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Bois  du 
Chenois,  while  the  First  Battalion,  passing 
through  the  Third  at  Haraucourt,  took  up  the 
front  of  the  advance  through  Angecourt  and 
on  to  Remilly-sur-Meuse,  reaching  the  river 
about  four-thirty  P.  M.  after  an  advance  of 
eighteen  kilometers. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  way,  although  no 
resistance  had  been  met,  it  was  everywhere 
evident  that  the  enemy  had  but  just  left.  As 
the  point  of  the  advancing  column  entered 
Remilly  a  crashing  explosion  shook  the  town, 
telling  that  the  enemy  had  blown  up  the  bridge 
at  their  rear;  Allicourt  in  flames  to  the  north- 
west sent  a  flickering  light  through  the  dusk. 
Outposting  the  railroad  tracks  across  Remilly 
and  Petit  Remilly,  the  First  Battalion  took  up 
a  defensive  position  on  the  heights  east  of 
Angecourt.  Both  flanks  were  open,  for  there 
was  no  liaison  with  other  troops,  and  it  is  worth 
noting  that  the  defense  of  the  left  flank,  both 
on  the  line  of  resistance  and  of  outposts,  was 
entrusted  to  Captain  Hubbell  and  his  Ma- 
chine-Gun  Company.  Still  carrying  their  guns 
by  hand,  they  had  not  only  kept  pace  with  this 

259 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

rapid  and  protracted  advance,  but  it  was  Cap- 
tain Hubbell's  presence  with  the  point  of  the 
advance  which  had  saved  it  from  being  blown 
up  with  the  bridge. 

The  region  to  the  rear  seemed  to  be  filled 
with  stray  elements  of  troops  from  innumer- 
able organizations,  from  the  1st,  6th,  42nd,  and 
80th  Divisions,  half-famished  and  exhausted 
men  who  had  lost  their  regiments  and  their 
way;  for  in  the  latter  stages  of  the  desperately 
hurried  advance  straggling  from  all  units  had 
become  serious,  and  the  men,  once  separated, 
could  find  no  information  of  their  commands. 
A  part  of  the  1st  Division,  either  losing  di- 
rection or  traveling  upon  an  independent 
schedule  for  Sedan,  had  crossed  the  sector  of 
the  77th  Division,  and,  in  the  darkness,  had 
become  engaged  with  part  of  the  42nd.  Mount- 
ed generals  and  staff-officers,  meeting  platoons 
of  infantry  on  the  march,  would  order  them 
upon  new  missions,  of  which  their  company  or 
battalion  commanders  would  never  hear — nor 
for  days  thereafter  would  they  hear  of  their 
platoons.  Everywhere  there  was  haste,  ex- 
haustion, and  a  growing  disorganization. 

260 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

That  night,  a  sergeant  from  the  168th  In- 
fantry, 42nd  Division,  which  previously  had 
relieved  the  78th,  came  up  to  effect  liaison  on 
the  left,  and  reported  the  forward  elements  of 
his  regiment  to  be  on  the  hills  west  of  Ange- 
court.  The  line  was  not  closed  up  to  the  river 
until  the  following  afternoon,  when  the  168th 
moved  in  on  the  left,  and  the  Second  Battal- 
ion of  the  307th  on  the  right,  from  Remilly  to 
Villers-devant-Mouzon.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  seventh  also  the  bridge  across  the  canal  at 
Allicourt  was  repaired,  and  an  attempt  made 
by  the  302nd  Engineers  to  build  a  bridge  across 
the  river  at  this  point.  A  covering  party  from 
"B"  Company,  sent  to  aid  in  this  operation, 
were  soon  engaged  in  a  fight  with  enemy  ma- 
chine-guns on  the  farther  shore;  and,  though 
the  latter  seemed  at  the  end  to  be  silenced,  the 
Engineers  had  lost  one  man  wounded,  and  the 
covering  party  from  "B"  one  killed  and  seven 
wounded,  and  work  on  the  bridge  was  discon- 
tinued. 

There  was  shelling  of  Remilly  throughout 
the  day,  with  the  pathetic  killing  of  a  few  civil- 
ians— poor  worn  women,  who  had  bravely  en- 

261 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

dured  four  years  of  bondage  and  oppression, 
to  die  in  the  hour  of  their  deliverance  and  at 
the  very  close  of  hostilities.  There  was  a  steady 
machine-gun  duel  across  the  river.  Captain 
Hubbell  had  located  eight  enemy  positions 
along  the  flats,  and  setting  his  own  guns  back 
in  the  interior  of  the  houses,  so  that  their  flash 
and  smoke  were  concealed,  opened  upon  them 
through  the  windows;  but  they  proved  too 
deeply  dug  in  to  be  reached.  All  day  there 
was  the  sound  of  firing  from  the  direction  of 
Thelonne,  in  the  sector  of  the  42nd,  and  once 
came  a  verbal  request  for  flank  assistance ;  but 
as  the  messenger  insisted  that  the  assistance^ 
was  to  be  sent  to  the  east,  although  he  bore 
every  evidence  of  having  himself  come  from 
the  west,  and  as  the  Second  Battalion  on  the 
eastern  flank  knew  of  no  such  need,  none  was 
actually  sent.  No  crossings  were  found  of  the 
river  and  there  was  no  further  infantry  action. 
Throughout  the  eighth,  enemy  shelling  con- 
tinued, concentrating  on  the  cross-roads  and 
towns,  and  mixed  along  the  front  with  minen- 
werfers.  There  was  little  or  no  response,  for, 
due  to  the  condition  of  the  roads  and  the  ra- 

262 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

pidity  of  advance,  the  American  guns  had  not 
yet  caught  up.  On  the  night  of  the  eighth  the 
Second  Battalion,  increasing  its  front,  took 
over  that  of  the  First  Battalion,  which  with- 
drew to  Haraucourt.  On  the  ninth  the  305th 
took  over  its  right  at  Villers-devant-Mouzon, 
although,  on  account  of  the  intensity  of  shell- 
fire,  the  town  itself  could  not  be  occupied ;  and 
on  the  same  day  the  Third  Battalion  took  over 
the  right  of  the  167th  Infantry  at  Thelonne, 
with  the  river  front  from  Allicourt  to  the  east 
of  Pont  Maugis.  The  latter  relief  was  some- 
what irregular  in  that  the  167th  left  before  the 
arrival  on  the  ground  of  the  Third  Battalion. 
We  now  come  to  that  which,  to  the  con- 
scientious historian,  is  a  most  interesting  and 
baffling  controversy,  namely  the  Bridges  of  the 
Meuse.  The  Regiment,  or  such  part  of  it  as 
is  interested,  may  be  classified  under  four 
heads,  namely :  those  who  believe  in  the  bridges 
both  at  Allicourt  and  at  Remilly ;  those  who  be- 
lieve in  the  bridge  at  Allicourt  but  not  in  that 
at  Remilly;  those  who  believe  in  the  bridge  at 
Remilly  but  not  in  that  at  Allicourt;  and  those 
who  believe  in  neither  bridge.     Each  faction 

263 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

supports  its  conviction,  for  they  cannot  be 
called  views,  with  incontrovertible  proof,  and 
freely  impugns  the  enterprise,  accuracy,  and 
personal  integrity  of  all  other  factions.  The 
writer,  never  having  looked  upon  the  landscape 
in  question,  and  therefore  being  quite  impar- 
tial, has,  after  exhaustive  research,  arrived  at 
no  conclusion  whatever.  And  yet  the  subject 
is  significant,  because  it  involves  the  passage  of 
the  Meuse,  with  the  record  of  first  over  and 
farthest  north,  and  such  kindred  matters,  whose 
importance  tends  always  to  increase  as  the  Ger- 
man machine-gun  fades  from  an  ever-present 
instrument  of  death  to  a  picturesque  topic  of 
conversation.  The  reader  is  herewith  offered 
both  the  facts  and  the  fiction,  and  must  make 
his  own  choice.  He  will  do  well,  however,  to 
bear  in  mind  three  modifying  circumstances: 
first,  that  there  was  both  a  canal  and  a  river, 
and  that  the  former,  though  on  the  nearer  side, 
was  by  some  constantly,  and  by  others  invari- 
ably, referred  to  as  the  river;  second,  that  the 
importance  attached  to  a  crossing  of  the  river, 
somewhere  and  under  any  conditions,  was  quite 
out  of  proportion  to  any  military  considera- 

264 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

tion  involved ;  and,  third,  that  at  an  uncertain 
point  in  the  interchange  of  reports  the  com- 
manding officer  of  the  First  Battalion  wrote: 

"All  former  references  in  messages  to  'Al- 
licourt'  should  read  'Remilly.'  " 

To  summarize  then  the  reports:  The  302nd 
Engineers  report  the  bridge  complete  across 
canal  and  river  at  seven  P.  M.,  November  8th. 
At  seven-forty  P.  M.  Colonel  Sheldon,  in  a 
message  to  the  First  Battalion,  expresses  a 
doubt  that  this  has  been  accomplished  and 
urges  that  a  patrol  of  three  be  gotten  across 
on  a  raft  or  by  swimming.  At  eight  P.  M., 
November  9th,  Company  "B"  writes: 

"Footbridge  over  river  is  reported  finished, 
and  I  have  established  a  post  of  two  chauchat- 
teams  across  river  at  302.6-320.5." 

And  when  the  historian  remonstrated  that 
the  coordinates  given  were  those  of  a  point 
across  neither  the  river  nor  the  canal,  he  was 
met  by  the  ingenuous  reply  that  they  might  be 
inexact,  in  that  the  sergeant  who  had  provided 

265 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

them  had  at  the  time  no  map  (and  the  civilian 
mind  can  scarcely  realize  the  profound  despair 
caused  by  such  a  statement).  Yet  it  was  said 
to  be  certain  that  the  chauchat  posts  were  es- 


jaWll  B»M  Pn/ttina  Haul  eSMftgiftorxitS.Am^ 

tablished  across  the  river  at  Remilly  by  "B" 
Company,  and  that  "F"  Company  had  relieved 
these  posts  when  taking  over  the  sector — a  fact 
flatly  denied  by  "F"  Company,  who  knew  of 
no  such  posts.  Also  on  November  9th  "F" 
Company  reports : 

"Sergeant  and  six  men  of  'F'  found  foot- 
bridge at  Remilly  completed  last  night,  and 

266 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

sergeant  crossed  to  northeast  bank  of  Meuse  at 
three  A.  M.  Patrol  of  same  sergeant  and  two 
men  crossed  bridge  over  Meuse  at  six-forty- 
five  A.  M.  and  went  forward  about  one  hun- 
dred meters  unmolested,  though  there  was  dis- 
tant fire  on  either  flank." 

At  nine-fifty  A.  M.  of  November  10th  the 
same  officer  of  "F"  Company  reports  as  a 
novelty  the  discovery  of  a  footbridge  at 
Remilly,  and  complains  that  "B"  Company 
should  not  have  warned  him  of  its  presence. 
He  explains  that  the  bridge  on  which  the  ser- 
geant had  crossed  was  actually  at  Allicourt. 
On  the  same  day  the  commanding  officer  of  the 
First  Battalion  reports: 

"Lieutenant  V.  and  one  man  tried  to  effect 
a  crossing  at  Remilly,  but  were  unable  to  cross 
river.  He  then  worked  north  and  crossed  at 
Allicourt  bridge,  taking  northeast  direction  to 
Douzy.  He  reports  considerable  traffic  of 
trucks  and  wagons  on  road,  but  met  no  one. 
There  is  no  bridge  at  Remilly." 

Also  on  the  tenth  a  Lieutenant  H.  reports: 

"Left  Remilly  at  twelve-fifteen  P.  M.  with 
ten  men  and  two  scouts  from  Second  Battalion 

267 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Headquarters,  and  went  to  302.6-320.6" 
(which  is  the  exact  place  of  crossing  men- 
tioned by  "F"  Company)  "but  found  no  bridge 
there.  I  learned  from  the  guide  from  'F* 
Company,  who  are  in  the  town,  that  no  bridge 
has  ever  been  there.  There  are  the  remains 
of  an  old  footbridge  that  looks  as  if  it  had  been 
destroyed  long  ago." 

And  he  then  describes  following  the  river 
north  and  crossing  it  at  Allicourt. 

At  three-forty-five  P.  M.  of  the  same  day  a 
Lieutenant  of  "F"  reports  crossing  with  a  ser- 
geant and  five  men  at  Remilly,  proceeding 
northeast  on  unimproved  Douzy  road  to  304.2- 
321.4,  hearing  wagon  traffic  and  meeting  an 
enemy  patrol  of  seven  or  eight  men  coming 
from  Douzy,  and  stating  in  conclusion  that  a 
covering  party  lay  between  the  canal  and  the 
river,  which  was  recrossed  at  seven-thirty 
P.  M.  On  the  eleventh  another  patrol  of  a 
sergeant  and  five  men,  also  from  "F,"  is  re- 
ported as  crossing  at  Remilly  and  describing 
the  condition  of  the  bridges  over  both  river 
and  canal. 

Finally,  on  November  11th,  an  officer  of  "L" 
268 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

Company,  which  then  held  the  Allicourt  sec- 
tor, reports: 

"A  private  and  myself  patrolled  the  south 
bank  of  the  Meuse  in  search  of  bridge  from 
302.1-321.3  to  301.4-322.1  and  could  find  no 
bridge  crossing  the  river.  The  sound  of  trucks 
traveling  along  road  I  discovered  was  water 
rushing  over  a  mill-wheel  at  301.4-321.9." 

Also  from  the  commanding  officer  of  "L": 

"I  find  that  the  bridge  patrolled  is  not  at 
301.5-321.7,  for  there  is  no  bridge  there.  There 
is  evidence  that  a  bridge  had  been  attempted 
at  that  point,  but  no  means  of  crossing  the 
Meuse  River  effected.  The  bridge  patrolled 
is  across  the  canal." 

And  again: 

"An  officer  with  a  corporal  and  two  privates 
crossed  the  footbridge  over  canal,  moving 
northeast  to  Meuse,  at  which  point  a  foot- 
bridge once  existed  but  which  has  been  de- 
stroyed. Spans  run  out  from  both  banks  of 
river,  leaving  an  opening  of  twenty-five  to 
thirty  feet  in  center.  Swift  current  at  this 
point." 

269 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

And  so  the  matter  rests,  but  let  us,  at  least 
for  the  sake  of  sentiment,  conclude  that  the 
307th  Infantry  patrolled  across  the  Meuse. 

Heavy  shelling  of  the  towns  and  cross-roads 
continued  with  projectiles  varying  from  three 
to  nine  inches  in  caliber.  The  surgeon  of  the 
First  Battalion  had  been  killed  while  at  work 
in  the  dressing  station,  and  a  single  shell  had 
wiped  out  the  driver,  five  horses,  and  rolling- 
kitchen  of  the  Machine-Gun  Company.  Yet 
in  general  the  casualties  were  light.  The 
American  artillery,  now  in  position,  was  reply- 
ing, but  not  heavily,  and  with  strangely  re- 
stricted targets.  First  it  was  ordered  that  they 
should  avoid  firing  upon  the  towns  across  the 
river,  then  that  they  should  also  avoid  the  cross- 
roads, then  the  cultivated  fields;  and  finally 
came  a  strange  and  incredible  rumor  that  an 
armistice  was  to  be  signed,  and  that  all  fire 
should  cease. 

Yet  eleven  A.  M.  of  November  11th  brought 
to  that  sector  no  sudden  or  dramatic  silence  of 
the  four  years'  thunder  of  the  guns — no  out- 
burst of  rejoicing,  nor  any  friendly  greeting  of 
old  enemies.    One  might  wish  that  it  had,  but 

270 


THE  ADVANCE  TO  THE  MEUSE 

it  did  not.  There  had  been  very  little  firing 
through  the  morning,  and  after  eleven  there 
was  none.  The  ancient  women,  who  had  trun- 
dled out  of  town  their  wheelbarrows,  loaded 
principally  with  nondescript  bedding  and  still 
more  ancient  women,  reappeared  almost  at 
once  trundling  them  back  again.  And  for  the 
rest  the  troops,  smoking  the  last  of  their  to- 
bacco, waited  more  hopefully,  but  quite  inar- 
ticulately, for  better  rations.  The  first  thrill 
of  victory  came  on  the  twelfth,  when  a  French 
battalion  of  Zouaves,  in  new  uniforms,  with 
colors  flying  and  music  playing,  with  the  song 
of  victory  in  their  step  and  the  light  of  it  in 
their  eyes,  their  officer  flashing  his  sword  in 
salute  at  their  head,  came  swinging  through 
the  streets  of  Thelonne  and  Angecourt.  It 
was  the  first  glimpse  any  had  had  of  the  pomp 
and  circumstance  of  war,  and  formed  a  de- 
lightful memory  of  its  close. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  HOME  TRAIL 

The  further  story  of  the  regiment  may  be 
briefly  told;  for,  though  the  months  seemed 
long  in  passing,  they  left  behind  them  few  mile- 
stones in  memory  to  mark  their  progress. 
There  were  the  long  leagues  of  muddy  road, 
back  across  the  old  battlefields  and  through  the 
old  ruins,  and  still  on  over  a  country  untouched 
by  war;  till,  in  the  first  day  of  December,  they 
reached  a  more  or  less  permanent  station  near 
Chaumont.  Clairvaux,  Ville-sous-la-Ferte, 
La  Ferte-sur-Aube,  Jouvancourt,  Dinteville, 
and  Silvarouvres — the  little  villages  stretched 
for  a  dozen  kilometers  along  the  valley  of  the 
Aube — a  pleasant  enough  country  when  finally 
it  had  exhausted  its  capacity  for  rain,  and  the 
mud  had  frozen  hard,  and  the  steep  pine-clad 
hills  were  covered  with  snow;  but  this  was  not 
until  the  last  days  of  sojourn  there.     There 

272 


.'•'  "'■  *■".":.*" ' 


i 


m 


n 


mi* 


U«  *m\  in  t  w 


u 


\  THE  HOME  TRAIL 

for  five  weeks  they  drilled,  deloused,  and 
equipped,  but  mostly  drilled.  To  many  it 
seemed  that  they  drilled  too  much,  for  it  was 
six  hours  a  day  and,  on  orders  from  high  au- 
thority, "regardless  of  weather."  Yet  one  who 
undertakes  to  disregard  the  weather  of  North- 
ern France  in  winter  is  undertaking  much,  and 
it  is  more  easily  done  in  the  office  than  in  the 
mud.  Then,  too,  the  minds  of  all  were  filled 
with  but  one  thought:  "When  are  we  going 
home?"  The  war  was  over,  and  it  was  an 
effort  of  mind  that  anything  else  should  seem 
to  matter. 

An  episode  of  interest  to  more  than  a  few 
was  the  discovery  of  the  loss,  by  almost  all 
wounded  officers,  of  all  their  baggage.  This 
had  been  turned  over  through  proper  military 
channels,  and  then,  as  the  old  hymn  has  it,  "not 
lost,  but  gone  before" — that  is,  gone  before  the 
rightful  owners  could  find  it.  It  was  squeezed 
dry  by  the  friction  of  its  passage  through  the 
above-mentioned  channels,  or  else  it  grounded 
on  a  reef  somewhere  in  mid-channel  and  never 
saw  port  at  all.  The  writer  found  one  bit  of 
salvage  from  his  bedding-roll  washed  up,  as  it 

273 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

were,  in  a  bottle — a  packet  of  papers  marked 
with  his  name,  and  anonymously  returned 
months  afterward,  which  he  had  tenderly 
packed  away,  before  entering  the  Argonne,  in 
the  center  of  the  roll.  Apart  from  this  soli- 
tary Enoch  Arden  the  bedding-roll  foundered 
with  all  hands.  His  locker-trunk  was  returned 
from  storage  in  the  Government  Storage  Plant 
at  Gievres,  where  it  had  been  sent  long  before, 
with  its  lock  torn  off  and  a  number  of  its  crew 
washed  overboard.  Many  officers  received 
their  suit-cases  as  empty  derelicts  with  not  a 
soul  on  board,  but  most  received  nothing,  and 
cherished  only  a  memory  and  a  vanishing  hope. 
An  episode  of  much  more  limited  interest 
was  the  return  of  a  certain  company  cook  to 
cooking.  He  was  an  Italian,  and  though  need- 
ing only  a  black  patch  over  one  eye  and  a  wide- 
brimmed  hat  to  pose  successfully  for  the 
Pirates  of  Penzance,  was  yet  a  very  excellent 
cook.  Unfortunately  he  drank,  and  quite 
without  sense  of  proportion;  and,  having  so 
drunk,  he  would  sharpen  a  carving-knife  while 
he  looked  gloomily  at  the  Mess  Sergeant, 
whom  he  professed  to  dislike.    The  Mess  Ser- 

274 


THE  HOME  TRAIL 

geant,  while  doing  his  duty  to  the  very  best  of 
his  ability,  and  ready  in  a  general  way  to  give 
his  life  for  his  country,  took  a  growing  aver- 
sion to  the  carving-knife,  and  complained 
about  it  to  his  captain.  So  the  captain  spoke 
quite  sternly  to  the  cook,  explaining  to  him 
that  he  had  failed  to  appreciate  his  many  privi- 
leges, and  had  betrayed  most  of  his  trusts; 
finally,  that  he  should  make  up  his  pack  at 
once  and  report  for  duty  on  the  outpost  line. 
This  had  happened  during  July  in  Lorraine, 
and  the  captain  had  fervently  hoped  that  con- 
trition would  soon  follow,  for  the  cook  had  to 
be  substituted  in  the  officers'  mess  by  a  man 
who  was,  properly  speaking,  a  butcher.  The 
cook,  in  spite  of  his  rather  moth-eaten  piratical 
appearance,  looked  neither  strong  nor  brave; 
and  it  seemed  probable  that  a  few  nights  of 
lonely  sentry-post  under  sniping  fire,  or  at 
most  a  few  long  marches  with  a  pack,  would 
prepare  him  again  for  his  flesh-pots.  But  they 
didn't.  He  accepted  his  punishment  meekly, 
in  a  combination  of  Italian  and  French,  and 
then,  having  once  tasted  of  the  line,  nothing 
would   persuade   him   back   to  the   kitchen. 

275 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

When  the  picked  platoon  was  chosen  to  repre- 
sent the  company  in  the  proposed  raid  against 
Ancerviller,  though  not  chosen,  since,  among 
other  short-comings,  he  had  almost  never  fired 
a  rifle  nor  drilled  with  a  bayonet  or  grenade, 
he  none  the  less  went.  And  so,  till  the  end  of 
the  war,  he  remained,  and  the  company  had 
gained  an  excellent  soldier,  of  whom  there  were 
many,  but  had  lost  a  superlative  cook,  of  whom 
there  were  no  more. 

Toward  the  middle  of  February  came  the 
next  stage  of  the  long  trail  home,  when  the  last 
battalion  of  the  regiment  moved  out  at  night, 
under  a  cold  half -moon,  company  after  com- 
pany in  dim  silhouette  of  packs  and  rifles,  black 
against  the  moonlit  ice,  with  the  calling  of 
good-byes  behind,  and  twenty  kilometers  of 
glare  ice  in  front — that  and  a  four-hour  wait  at 
dawn  for  a  train  unheated,  in  numb  and  bitter 
cold.  The  war  was  not  over  with  the  signing 
of  the  armistice. 

In  the  Embarkation  Center  about  Le  Mans 
and  Sable  life  became  pleasanter,  for  there  the 
spring  was  already  beginning.  Again  there 
were     the     wide-scattered     billets — Asnieres, 

276 


THE  HOME  TRAIL 

Poille,  Fontenay,  Avoise,  Parce,  and  La 
Rougealiere.  There  was  continued  drilling,  but 
less  of  it,  continued  delousing,  and  more  of  it, 
equipping,  some  excellent  baseball,  and  innu- 
merable inspections,  which  quite  definitely  re- 
quired a  black  and  brilliant  polish  on  shoes 
which  were  frankly  intended  to  be  rough  and 
brown. 

On  February  24th  the  77th  Division  was  re- 
viewed at  Solesme  by  General  Pershing.  It 
had  been  reviewed  at  Florent  just  three  months 
previously  by  General  Alexander,  but  this  lat- 
ter occasion  seemed  more  notable,  and  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief made  a  remarkable  state- 
ment. So  remarkable  was  it  in  fact  that,  for 
fear  of  misquotation,  one  almost  hesitates  to  set 
it  down.    For  he  said: 

"I  consider  the  77th  Division  one  of  the 
best — in  fact  it  is,  in  my  estimation,  the  best 
division  in  the  A.E.F." 

It  is  a  distinction  which,  of  course,  every 
self-respecting  division  both  claims  and  proves ; 
but  one  can  only  assume  the  verdict  of  the 
Commander-in-Chief  to  be  final.  In  any  case 
it  offered  a  most  magnificent  spectacle,  massed 

277 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

upon  the  field  in  line  of  battalions  formed  in 
close  column  of  companies,  at  one-half  normal 
distance,  showing  with  their  steel  helmets  and 
fixed  bayonets  like  some  great  Roman  testudo 
or  Macedonian  phalanx  of  gleaming  metal,  a 
mighty  and  resistless  engine  of  war.  Yet,  in 
the  words  of  Canrobert:  "C'est  magnifique, 
mais  ce  nest  pas  la  guerre!3 

In  March  there  was  a  military  and  athletic 
meet  of  all  the  divisions  in  the  Embarkation 
Center,  which  the  77th  Division  won,  and  in 
which  "H"  Company  of  the  307th  won  both 
the  platoon  and  company  drill  competition  for 
all  these  divisions.  Then  on  April  16th  came 
the  final  move.  It  was  full  spring,  and  the 
meadows  were  jeweled  with  cowslips  and  vio- 
lets, and  the  hedges  were  white  with  black- 
thorn— and,  oh,  how  long  ago  and  how  un- 
taught seemed  the  times  in  Upton,  when  the 
Regiment  had  adopted  that  emblem  for  its  own 
— when  the  battalions  moved  out  to  their  en- 
training points.  At  Avoise  all  the  school  chil- 
dren, with  their  teacher  and  village  cure,  lined 
the  street  to  bid  them  good-bye,  and  every  sol- 
dier came  out  with  a  flower  in  his  cap  or  the 

278 


THE  HOME  TRAIL 

muzzle  of  his  rifle.  The  teacher  had  written  in 
English  on  his  blackboard  a  message  of  affec- 
tionate farewell,  and  had  taught  each  child  to 
know  it  by  heart.  It  is  worth  telling  such 
things  to  those  who  have  only  heard  of  hostility 
between  the  Americans  and  the  French. 

The  Regiment  sailed  from  Brest  between 
April  20th  and  22nd,  divided  into  its  three  bat- 
talions on  board  the  America,  the  Louisville, 
and  the  St.  Louis — the  latter  the  same  cruiser 
which  had  convoyed  their  eastward  passage 
just  a  year  and  a  day  before — and  by  the  first 
of  May  the  last  of  them  had  reached  New  York. 
It  was  different,  very  different,  from  the  going 
forth.  There  were  excursion  steamers  in  the 
Narrows,  crowding  on  either  side  of  the  trans- 
ports, covered  with  banners  and  placards  of 
welcome,  filled  with  brass  bands  and  such  fer- 
vently rejoicing  people,  shouting  their  quick, 
eager  questions  and  greetings  across  the  wa- 
ter. Then  came  the  Statue  of  Liberty  (which 
will  always  hereafter  mean  far  more  to  her 
troops  than  ever  she  has  meant  before)  and 
the  strange,  familiar  pinnacles  of  the  city — the 
docks  of  Hoboken  and  Long  Island  City,  with 

279 


FROM  UPTON  TO  THE  MEUSE 

the  American  cobbles  under  foot — the  eager, 
pressing  throngs,  crowded  behind  the  iron  bars, 
their  reaching  hands  stretched  through,  and 
their  eyes  bright  with  tears  and  with  worship. 
And  the  troops  pressed  forward  along  the  nar- 
row ways,  their  heads  lifted  as  though  for 
crowns,  and  the  hot  blood  surging  round  their 
hearts,  swallowing  back  their  tears  as  they 
looked  into  those  wonderful  adoring  faces — the 
roar  of  feet,  the  crashing  thunder  of  the  drums, 
the  music  echoing  and  reverberating  through 
the  streets,  and  the  cheering,  cheering,  cheering 
till  even  the  music  was  drowned  into  silence. 
How  wonderful  life  seemed  on  that  May-day 
evening  to  pilgrims  coming  back  to  it  again — 
back  from  the  already  forgotten  shadows  of 
that  twilight  world  beneath  the  portcullis  of. 
death.  How  the  little  troubles  and  purposes, 
that  loom  so  large  in  the  foreground  of  vision, 
how  they  dwindle  and  vanish  down  the  long 
diminishing  perspective  of  time;  while  higher 
and  more  and  more  commanding  grows  that 
great  mountain  of  sorrow  and  of  grandeur  to 
which  the  pilgrimage  has  led,  and  to  which  the 
eyes  of  future  generations  in  awe  will  turn. 

280 


THE  HOME  TRAIL 

For  the  days  through  which  we  have  lived  have 
been  heroic  days,  and  the  world  has  not  seen 
their  like  before,  nor  will  know  them  again; 
and  the  memories  of  those  days  are  a  heritage 
to  the  race  of  men  which  shall  not  be  forgotten. 
So  the  Regiment  came  back  to  Camp  Upton, 
where  it  was  born,  and  was  mustered  out  into 
the  citizenship  from  which  it  came. 


FINIS 


THE  LAST  ADVANCE 

We  have  shed  our  blood  with  the  English  blood; 

We  have  bled  with  bleeding  France; 
We  have  joined  our  steel  in  the  last  appeal 

At  the  Red  Tribunal  of  Chance, 
Where  shoulder  to  shoulder  the  nations  stand 

For  the  glorious  last  advance. 

Shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  heart  to  heart, 

Bound  with  a  blood-red  chain, 
In  the  meadows  where  Fate  has  danced  with  Hate, 

In  the  drip  of  a  blood-red  rain — 
In  the  trampled  meadows  where  Death  has  reaped, 

Has  sown,  and  has  reaped  again — 
Brothers  in  pain  and  sick  fatigue, 

And  in  purpose  that  recks  not  pain. 

We  have  buried  our  dead  on  a  thousand  hills, 

And  thousands  unburied  lie, 
In  battered  village  and  shattered  wood, 

Agape  to  the  drenching  sky, 
Where  they  poured  their  blood  in  the  trampled  mud, 

As  a  witness  to  God  on  High — 
As  the  last  full  price  of  sacrifice 

For  that  which  shall  never  die. 

282 


THE  LAST  ADVANCE 

But  the  ghosts  of  the  twice-fought  fields  shall  rise 

At  the  charging  battalions'  shout — 
Shall  whirl  in  the  smoke  of  the  last  barrage 

Over  bayonet-fight  and  rout — 
Shall  sing  in  the  scream  of  passing  shell 

As  we  sweep  to  the  last  redoubt. 

For  the  hour  has  struck,  and  the  kingdoms  rock 

On  the  last  red  verge  of  war; 
Our  countless  dead  in  the  wind  o'erhead 

At  the  final  barrier — 
One  swift-drawn  breath  in  the  wind  of  Death, 

And  the  Merciful  Gates  before — 
Where  Freedom  stands  with  outspread  hands 

For  ever  and  evermore. 


And  some  shall  come  home  through  a  sea  of  flags 
When  the  cannon  their  thunder  cease; 

And  some  shall  lie  alone  with  the  sky- 
In  the  valley  of  Long  Release, 

Where  glorious  dust  is  laid  to  dust, 
And  rumors  of  war  shall  cease — 

And  the  sunshine  fair  on  their  sepulcher 
Is  the  dawn  of  Eternal  Peace. 

W.  K.  R. 

October,  1918 
Base  Hospital  No.  22,  Beau  Deseht,  Fhahce 


283 


APPENDIX 

The  Honor  Roll  of  the  807th  Infantry,  which  fol- 
lows hereafter,  is  not  quite  complete,  but  it  is  the  most 
nearly  so  now  obtainable.  Many  of  the  Companies  had 
lost  all  their  records  before  the  Armistice,  and  the 
casualty  records  at  Washington  are  not  as  yet  classified 
by  organizations.  In  the  published  Divisional  list,  from 
which  the  one  below  is  taken,  the  Company  with  which 
the  writer  served  in  October  was  given  as  having  lost 
44  killed  or  died  of  wounds,  whereas  the  Company's 
own  list  showed  56.  Wherever  possible  the  Divisional 
list  has  been  augmented,  but  this  has  been  possible  for 
only  about  half  the  Companies.  The  number  of  56 
above  referred  to  is,  according  to  available  information, 
the  largest  in  the  Division,  and  is  indeed  very  heavy, 
representing  a  total  of  208  battle-casualties  out  of  an 
original  strength  of  250  men.  The  names  of  wounded 
have  not  been  included,  since  it  was  found  impossible 
to  compile  such  a  list  for  more  than  a  few  of  the  Com- 
panies; neither,  for  most  of  the  Companies,  are  the 
names  of  the  men  given  who  died  of  disease — where 
given  they  are  marked  (D.D.).  The  casualty  figures  ob- 
tained from  Regimental  Headquarters,  of  probable  ap- 
proximate accuracy,  but  having  no  list  of  corresponding 
names,  were  for  the  Regiment. 

Missing  107 

Killed  431 

Wounded     1833 

Total  2371 

285 


APPENDIX 

In  General  March's  official  statement  the  77th  Divi- 
sion was  placed  ninth  in  the  number  of  its  losses,  which 
were  given  as  2692  major  casualties — or  deaths  from 
wounds,  and  wounds  judged  to  be  more  or  less  per- 
manently incapacitating  for  service.  This  is  almost 
certainly  an  under-statement,  and  in  the  final  parade 
of  May  6th  through  New  York  the  white  banners  about 
the  catafalque  of  the  Division  bore  approximately  2300 
golden  stars.  The  Division  received  12,728  replace- 
ments of  whom  the  Regiment  received  1,628  enlisted 
men  and  100  officers. 


HONOR  ROLL  OF  307TH  INFANTRY 
Company  A 


Both,  Percy  C. 
Behrend,  John. 
Campbell,  T.  E.,  Sgt. 
Caplo,   Stanley. 
Carlson,  N.  J. 
Chambers,  Ernest  A. 
Conay,  Irving,  Corp. 
Curtis,  Isaac  W. 
Dupois,  Rene. 
Formation,  Carmine. 
Fuller,  T.  L. 
Goeres,  Nick  F. 
Hamilton,  Harley  A. 
Hart,  M.  L. 
Haughian,  Michael 
Henion,  W.  H. 
Jacobson,  Roy  D. 
Kelley,  J.  B.,  Sgt. 
Leonard,  H.  G.,  1st  Lt. 


Liszewski,  Antoni. 
Logatto,  Benjamin. 
Mason,  M.  W.,  Corp. 
Olson,  Hans  H. 
Orth,  Emanuel. 
Owens,  Joseph,   Corp. 
Pappalardi,    Salvatore. 
Rogers,  Robert,  Sgt. 
Schumm,  K.  H.,  Sgt. 
Seagriff,  James  H. 
Specht,  Walter. 
Stanbitz,  Philip. 
Stuart,  Ned. 
Studlien,  Eugene  N. 
Sullivan,  Nile  A. 
Taylor,  Henry  T. 
Wood,  Francis  E. 
Ziszewski,  Antoni. 


286 


APPENDIX 


Company  B 


Bardman,  B. 
Baty,  Christian  A. 
Blackburn,  John. 
Breth,  Louis. 
Brophy,  W.  F. 
Burke,  Frank  W.,  Sgt. 
Carlo,  Michael. 
Conner,  James. 
Cullen,  Richard. 
Dolan,  John  P. 
Donkers,  J.  V. 
Falliard,  James,  Jr. 
Flanagan,  R.,  Corp. 
Friedman,  Irving. 
Hanley,  J.  P. 


Hausner,  Salie. 
Kelly,  John  E.,  Corp. 
Knab,  Peter  T. 
Millsap,  Earl. 
Nickerson,  Alfred  W. 
Peterson,  Albert  C. 
Peterson,  E.  W. 
Rhynard,  John  R.,  Corp. 
Ribo,  Raffele, 
Robare,  Albert  J.,  Corp. 
Robinson,  James. 
Russell,  Geo.  F.,  Sgt 
Sellers,  Elmer  O. 
Straus,  Joseph. 
Zukasky,  Paul. 


Company  C 


Abramowitz,    Harry. 
Anderson,    Oscar    D. 
Black,  Guy,  2d  Lt. 
Brittain,  Alton  K. 
Carpenter,       Frank       B, 

Corp. 
Corbett,  Frank  H. 
Daunce,   William. 
Gait,  Alex. 
Gill,  G.  E.,  2d  Lt. 
Grove,  W.  L.,  Sgt. 
Gulotte,  Stephen  L.,  Corp 
Hamilton,   Douglas  O. 
Holz,  F.  H.,  Sgt. 


Hickman,  Virden  S. 
McCann,  Henry  P. 
McMahon,  William  R. 
Mundee,  John  D. 
,      Murnane,  John  D. 
O'Hern,  Joseph  F. 
Olmstead,  H.  R. 
Phahl,  George  R. 
Remo,  Frank. 
Sands,  Julius. 
Schaubaum,  Samuel. 
Self,  Francis  E. 
Staats,  Frederick. 
Stengel,   Alfred. 

287 


APPENDIX 


Subke,  Harry  C. 
Swirsky,  Isidore. 
Symbol,  A. 


Winkler,   Benton   W. 
Woodburn,  James  S. 
Zielintski,   Frank. 


Company  D 


Ames,  James  H.,  Sgt. 
Bernado,  Giuseppe. 
Bertany,  Joseph. 
Blundell,  John. 
Campbell,  Ernest  J. 
De  Long,  Herbert  W. 
Duffy,   Edward  J. 
Eckhoff,  Nils. 
Elliott,  Archie  J.,   Sgt. 
Goonan,  Edw.,  Corp. 
Haley,  T.  J. 

Hartnett,  William  F.,  Corp. 
Havens,   Herbert  L. 
Howard,    Walter. 
Hyman,   Louis. 
Jones,  Thomas  A. 


Kidder,  Harvey. 

Klaiber,    Paul. 

Muhling,      William       M., 

Corp. 
Murphy,  J.  J. 
O'Loughlin,  Frank. 
Phanco,  Harry  L. 
Rechlin,  J.  J.,  Sgt. 
Rosenwold,  Anders. 
Saxe,  J.  J. 
Schurr,  Ralph. 
Schwenke,    F.   E.,   Corp. 
Stender,  John  H. 
Tanney,  Albin. 
Williams,  John  W. 
Woody,  W.  M.,  2d  Lt. 


Company  E, 


Arbuckle,  Wyatt  L. 
Arpin,  J. 
Brown,  L. 

Churchman,  Oscar  D. 
Cuddeback,  M.  A. 
De  Long,  H. 
Ennis,  C. 
Gerstein,  L. 
Goldstein,  Julius,  Sgt. 


Grubbs,  Lee. 

Guthrie,  Farrand  R. 

Heinzel,  Frank. 

Hyman,  L. 

Hang,  G. 

Kirk,  Chas.   F. 

Lane,  William  J.,  Corp. 

Levy,  Jacob. 

Lik,  John,  Moccasin. 

288 


APPENDIX 


Mea,  Cone  A. 
Miller,  Wm. 
Mooney,  John  J. 
Murdock,  Lindsay  E. 
Newsome,  Fred  W. 
O'Brien,  J.  C,  1st  Lt. 
O'Neill,  John  T. 
Pisano,  Carmello 
Quigg,  J.,  Sgt. 
Roth,  Benjamin  W. 
Scudder,  P.  J.,  1st  Lt. 
Segnit,   John  A. 
Slatopolsky,  Jack. 
Smith,  George  A. 
Smith,   George   W. 
Standerman,  C,  Corp. 
Steigelman,  C. 


Steiner,   Albert   C. 
Stomers,  C.  D.,  Corp. 
Stuessy,  Andrew. 
Urge,  J.  J.,  Sgt. 
Walker,  Edgar. 
Weir,  John  S. 

Benta,  W.  C,   (D.D.) 
Burger,  W.,  Corp.,  (D.D.) 
Daniels,  A.   G.,    (D.D.) 
Forman,   H.,    (D.D.) 
Fortunato,  U.,    (D.D.) 
Harmon,   F.    P.,    (D.D.) 
Hasler,     W.     C,     Corp., 

(D.D.) 
Manning,  J.,   (D.D.) 
IVanderbegaerde,  J.,  (D.D.) 


Alvord,  J.  M. 
Amdur,  C. 
Bridgeworth,  I.  W., 
Crowley,  E.  J.,  Sgt. 
Davis,  E.  J. 
Doyle,  W.  J. 
Dunne,  G.  R.,  Sgt. 
Haupt,  F.,  Corp. 
Heston,  G.  S. 
Heutte,  A. 
Kerber,  Jacob. 
Love,  J.  A. 
Morgan,  H. 


Company  F 

Powers,  P.  J. 
Riker,  Walter  T. 
Corp.       Rubenstein,  E. 

Schmidlin,  C,  Corp. 
Schreck,   J.,   Sgt 
Sonnenberg,  C.  J. 

Byrne,  C.  A.,  Sgt.,  (D.D.) 
Hamilton,  A.  E.,  (D.D.) 
Herrickson,  A.,   (D.D.) 
Schneider,  E.,   (D.D.) 
Swanson,  J.,    (D.D.) 
Ungvarsky,  W.,  (D.D.) 

289 


APPENDIX 


Company  G 


Brady,  Hugh.,  Corp. 
Braman,  R.  C. 
Blanchard,  N.  A. 
Bunce,  Charles,  Sgt. 
Carlson,  E.   E. 
Coleman,  J.  J. 
Cook,  James. 
Dittner,  Henry. 
Funatelli,  Achille. 
Grandy,   L. 
Hamilton,  D. 
Hennessey,  Martin  F. 
Jobe,  J. 

Kennedy,  Robert  G. 
Klamka,   John. 
Kuratowski,  S. 
Kwiatowski,  Stanley. 
Kyewski,  John. 
Lord,  W.  B.,  Corp. 


McConnell,  J.  W.,  2d  Lt. 
Menisree,  M. 
Morriscoe,  M.  J. 
O'Brien,  T.  J. 
Peppard,  Paul  L.,  Corp. 
Prat,  Henry  E. 
Prince,  C.  P.,  Sgt. 
Pusateri,  F. 
Ritter,    Frank. 
Schuster,  Harry  G. 
Schuster,  W.  E.,  Sgt. 
Vento,  Andrew. 
Williams,  Tom  R. 

LaDucs,  N.,  (D.D.) 
McKinney,  A.,  (D.D.) 
Rebetarre,  V.,   (D.D.) 
Scott,  L.,  (D.D.) 


Company  H 


Ammerman,  J.  B. 
Ankelman,    Rudolph. 
Blyleven,  Harry. 
Caplo,  S. 

Christiansen,  Conrad  J. 
Di  Mele,  G.,  Corp. 
Downs,  George  T. 
Dubinski,  P.,  Corp. 
Everett,  H,  C,  Sgt. 
Ezzo,  T. 


Fallowell,  C.  W. 
Farrell,  R. 

Fickbohm,  C.  H.,  Corp. 
Furstenan,  Carl  L. 
Grant,   E.,   Capt. 
Guarino,  A. 
Guerra,  Juan. 
Hamel,  Henry. 
Johnson,  J.  H. 
Kenney,  J.,  Corp. 


290 


APPENDIX 


Klimaszwaki,    Victor. 
Konopko,  Wincentz. 
Lanphean,  Oliver  M. 
Lieneck,  P.  G.,  Corp. 
^McAllister,    William. 
McCallister,  J.,   Corp. 
Marini,    Michael. 
Miles,  G.  H.,  Corp. 
Murray,  C.   F.,  1st  Lt 
Mabbruch,  J. 
Oscar,  John. 
Pawlik,  J. 
Pennachio,  Mark. 

Company  I 


Romanchuk,  Stephen. 
Rotgard,  Isidor,  Corp. 
Seeger,  Philip  J.,  2d  Lt. 
Sigafoos,  F.  W. 
Smith,  George  E. 
Stein,  Israel. 
Walasck,  John. 
Watkins,  Charles  E. 


Kneble,  E.,  (D.D.) 
McEntarfer,  J.,  (D.D.) 
Price,  J.   J.,   (D.D.) 


Buttaglia,  Salvatore. 
Brennan,  Edw.  C,  Corp. 
Driscoll,    William. 
Falco,  Thos.  J.,  Corp. 
Fallon,  Wm.  H.,  Corp. 
Foley,  James  J.,  Corp. 
Garland,  Jack. 
George,  Henry. 
Grimes,  Patrick. 
Hauser,  George,  Sgt. 
Irwin,  Wm.  E.,  Jr. 
Keane,  John  J. 
Keating,  Frank  H. 


Knopow,  Charles. 
Leberto,  Giuseppe. 
Maggio,  James. 
Olsen,  H. 

O'Neill,  Patrick  E. 
Paddock,  Allen  W. 
Rabinowitz,  Wm.  A. 
Rook,  William  L. 
Schaeffern,  Jacob  J. 
Schindler,  Jesse  A. 
Schmidt,  Jacob  D. 
Talmas,  J. 
Terpilowsky,  B. 


Ammon,  Tobias. 
Anderson,  Gus. 
Bang,  John. 


Company  K 


Blowers,  Bert  L. 
Cafferty,  Patrick  J. 
Church,  R.  G. 


291 


APPENDIX 


Cole,  Harvey  R. 
Crouse,  William  P. 
Gotti,  Albert  J.,  Corp. 
Hochman,  Jacob,  Sgt. 
Johnson,   Charley. 
Klein,  David. 
Lekan,  Mike. 
Lipasti,   Frank  I. 
Mahoney,  James. 
Malone,  E.  J. 
Manfredi,  John. 
Nabbruck,  John. 
Neitizbie,  J. 


Palermo,  Joseph. 
Peiffer,  W.  E.,  Corp. 
Pelkey,  J. 
Perry,  Emil. 
Rumsey,  W.  T. 
Rust,  Louis,  Corp. 
Seamolla,  L. 
Stall,  W.  H. 
Swackhammer,  George. 
Szablinski,  Wladslaw. 
Tisnower,  I.,  Corp. 
Woodland,  W.  W. 


Brodsky,  Philys. 
Brozholm,  S.  F.  S. 
Conti,   Jos. 
Cook,  Percy  E.,  Sgt. 
Crabtree,  Walter  J.,  Corp. 
Cuifetelli,  L. 
D'Elio,  R. 
Davenport,  T.   S. 
Dinitz,  Sam. 
Drezwicki,  Raphael  A. 
Felter,  Earle  B.,  1st  Lt. 
Florence,  J. 
Fuchs,  Walter,  Sgt. 
Gaffney,  J.  J. 
Gilligan,  P. 
Guillaume,  Alonzo  H. 
Harkowitz,  Louis. 
Henderson,  W.   E. 
Hill,  Arthur  A. 


Company  L 

Houghtaling,  H.  W.,  Corp 
Hubbard,  H.  L. 
Jappe,  August. 
Jones,  John  W. 
Kees,  George  D. 
Knox,  Robert  G. 
Kulseth,  M.  A. 
Laib,  Michael. 
Leyendecker,  T. 
Lindeberg,  A.   R. 
Lippe,  Oscar  P.,  Sgt. 
Lynch,  Hugh  E. 
Markowitz,  Louis. 
Moore,  G.  L. 
Mowicki,  Jos. 
Oselins,  Hjalmar  J., 
Palsted,  Axel  T.,  Corp. 
Pariser,   Harry,   Corp. 
Patterson,  Robert  H. 

292 


APPENDIX 


Rabbitt,  Michael  J. 
Schreider,  Ludwig  T. 
Schlaffer,  H.  Sgt. 
Schwencke,  F.  E.,  Corp. 
Skogen,  Edwin  B. 
Smith,  Edwin. 
Solberg,  Reinert. 
Sorbye,  Oscar  L. 
Sorenson,  S.  A. 
Stockham,  John  L. 
Thompson,  Jack. 


Torregrossa,  J.  L.,  Corp. 
Whitaker,  I.  B. 
Wilcox,  F.  A.,  Corp. 
Wilkes,  James  H. 
Wilson,  William  M. 

Larson,  H.,  (D.D.) 
LeViness,  Jos.  J.,  (D.D.) 
Phenes,  B.,  (D.D.) 
Schmidt,  (D.D.) 


Company   M 


Bolton,  George  T. 
Brown,  Peter. 
Cahill,  W.  F.,  1st  Lt. 
Comma,  John. 
Chamberlain,  F.  M. 
Cunningham,  A.  J. 
Dorscheid,  Floyd  F. 
Eike,  Hartvik  B. 
Evoy,  John  P. 
Feit,  Ray  J. 
Frascati,  G. 
Gallagher,  Patrick  J. 
Garthright,  J.  R. 
Harder,  C.  J. 
Hohler,  G.  H. 
Howard,  Bernard  A. 
Kelly,  Clark  L. 
Klein,  Walter   C. 
Kobernat,  James  F. 
Kucharsky,  Adam. 
Leahy,  B.  P.,  Sergt 


McDermott,  T.  J. 
McDonald,  James. 
McNamee,  Joseph. 
O'Connell,  Daniel. 
O'Rourke,  M.  F. 
Page,  John. 
Praffes,  Nicholas,  Bgl. 
Raber,  William,  Corp. 
Regan,  Michael,  Corp. 
Rifflard,  L.  A.,  Corp. 
Russo,  Salvator. 
Stein,  George  E. 
Sullivan,  John. 
Sutphen,  William  E. 
Tymon,  James. 
Waters,  Hunley,  Sgt. 
Watson,  Rbt.  E.,  Sgt. 

Glor,  Lester,  (D.D.) 
Smith,  C.  S.,  (D.D.) 


293 


APPENDIX 

Machine  Gun   Company 

Clark,  Herbert  J.  O'Connor,  M.  B. 

Freedman,  Isaac  N.,  Sgt.  Ray,  Thomas  J. 

Hershman,  M.  M.,  Sgt.  Warren,   Casimir   M. 

Munson,  Eugene.  Wentworth,  William  H. 
Nichols,  R.  L. 

Headquarters  Company 

Blauvelt,  Charles  R.  Riley,  Joseph. 

Clinton,  H.  T\,  Corp.  Smith,  Lee  S. 

Rice,  F.  D. 

Supply  Company 

Scott,  F.  A.,  Capt 

Sanitary  Detachment 

Alvey,  Martin  N.  Rosenblum,  I. 

Cieslinski,  J.  T.,  Sgt.  Schroeder,  Hans  C. 

Hollander,  Viel.  Sweeney,  William  J. 

Kirsch,  Louis.  Walsh,  Christopher  T. 

Ohlson,  Alfred  H.  Wolf,  Joseph,  Jr. 


OFFICERS  WHO  HAVE  COMMANDED  THE 
UNITS   OF   THE   REGIMENTS 

The  following  list  has  been  given  by  the  units  con- 
cerned as  that  of  the  officers  who  have  at  any  time  been 
in  command  of  them.  The  list  is  not  meant  to  contain 
mere  technicalities,  as  when  an  officer  has  been  left 
briefly  in  command  of  a  unit  during  the  temporary 
occupation  elsewhere  of  its  actual  commander.  The 
names  are  given  with  the  grade  held  during  the  period 

294 


APPENDIX 

of  command,  and  not  that  to  which  the  officers  may 
later  have  been  promoted.  Where  an  officer  served  in 
command  of  various  units  the  notation  of  "wounded" 
after  his  name  indicates  that  he  was  wounded  while  in 
command  of  that  unit. 


307th  Infantry 


Colonel  I.  Erwin. 
Lt.-Colonel  R.  A.  Smith. 
Lt.-Colonel  J.A.Benjamin. 
Lt.-Colonel  E.  A.  Hough- 
ton (evac.  sick). 


Colonel  R.  Sheldon. 
Colonel  J.   R.   Hanney. 
Lt.-Colonel  W.  H.  Meyers. 


First  Battalion 


Major  P.  P.  Gardiner. 
Captain  C.  Blagden. 


Captain   E.   B.   Newcomb. 
Major  J.  F.  M 'Kinney. 


Captain        C. 
(wounded) . 
Lieutenant     J.     W. 
deman  (injured). 


Company  A 

Blagden       Captain      W.      Harrigan 
(wounded). 
Var-     Lieutenant  N.  W.  Kenyon 
(killed). 
Lieutenant  J.   McCearley. 


Company  B 

Barrett 


Captain         B. 
(killed). 

Lieutenant   E.   A.   Butter- 
field  (injured). 


Lieutenant  H.  R.  Weiman. 
Captain  L.  O.  Slagle. 
Captain  W.  G.  Green. 
Lieutenant  K.  C.  Lincoln. 


Lieutenant  F.  A.  Tillman.      Captain  W.  Jenkins. 

295 


APPENDIX 

Company  C 

Captain  J.  H.  Prentice.         Lieutenant  G.  Black 
Captain     R.     M.     Shields  (killed), 

(wounded) . 

Company  D 

Captain  T.  W.  Hastings         Lieutenant  W.  Jenkins, 
(died).  Lieutenant  L.  Barrett. 

•  •  •  • 

Second  Battalion 

Major  D,  K.  Jay  (wound-  Lieutenant  W.  Jenkins. 

ed).  Major     J.     H.     Prentice 
Captain   D.   Davis    (evac.  (wounded). 

sick).  Captain  F.  A.  Tillman. 
Captain        C        Blagden 

(wounded). 

Company  E 

Captain     F.     E.     Adams      Lieutenant  W.  Jenkins. 

(wounded).  Lieutenant  H.  H.  Miller. 

Lieutenant  E.  C.  Goodwin. 

Company  F 

Captain   D.    Davis    (evac.      Lieutenant  R.  Goggin. 

sick).  Lieutenant  W.  E.  Kidd. 

Lieutenant  F.  W.  Gilbert 

(gassed). 

Company  G 

Captain  J.  Sproule  (evac.  Lieutenant  W.  N.  Clinton. 

sick).  Lieutenant  W.  Jenkins. 

Lieutenant  M.  J.  Cichy  Lieutenant   J.   S.   McDer- 

(wounded).  mott  (evac.  sick). 

Lieutenant  G.  E.  Colbath.  Captain  N.  M.  Holderman. 

296 


APPENDIX 

Company  H 

Captain      E.      L.  Grant      Lieutenant  E.  R.  Thorpe. 

(killed).  Lieutenant  L.  H.  Halleck. 

Lieutenant   H.    L.  Smith,      Captain  F.  E.  Adams. 

Jr.  (gassed). 

•                        •  •                        •                        • 

Third  Battalion 

Major  F.  R.  Rich.  Major  J.  F.  M'Kinney. 

Captain  W.  Harrigan.  Captain  W.  Jenkins. 

Captain  J.  H.  Prentice.  Major  C.  Blagden. 

Company  I 
Captain  W.  Harrigan.  Lieutenant  O.  H.  Perry 

Captain      N.      H.      Lord  (wounded) 

(injured).  Lieutenant  G.  D.  Savage. 

Company  K 

Captain        J.        Holahan  Lieutenant   Pool    (wound- 

(gassed).  ed). 
Captain     N.     Holderman 

(wounded). 

Company  L 

Captain       R.       Sylvester  Lieutenant       A.       Rogers 

(evac.  sick).  (wounded). 

Lieutenant  G.  Buel.  Lieutenant       T.        Jones 

Lieutenant    E.    B.    Felter  (wounded). 

(killed).  Lieutenant  B.  Currier. 

Captain  W.  K.  Rains  ford  Captain  W.   B.   Chamber- 

( wounded).  lin  (wounded). 
Lieutenant     R.     Lindholm 

(wounded). 

297 


APPENDIX 


Company  M 


Captain  W.  K.  Rainsforo^  Lieutenant  A.   F.    Shelata 

(wounded  ) .  (  wounded  ) . 

Lieutenant    J.    A.     Swett  Captain    S.    S.    Nash,   Jr. 

(wounded).  (gassed). 

Lieutenant    W.    G.    Cahill  Lieutenant  C.  C.  Piatt, 
(killed). 

Machine-Gun  Company 

Capt.  G.  Hubbell. 

Headquarters  Company 

Capt.  F.  R.  Appleton.  Capt.  L.  W.  Bacon. 

Capt.  J.  H.  Prentice.  Capt.  F.  W.  Gilbert 

Supply  Company 
Capt  E.  S.  Hale.  Capt.  F.  A.  Scott  (killed). 


(1) 


1  n^ 


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